The Trials We Face
by XIIIth Hazard
Summary: (Part: 6) – Just because Donnie has returned home doesn't mean the problems have ended. With both Shredder and their newest enemy; the Barron hunting them down there seems to be very little the Turtles can do to defend themselves. Turtle-Verse/Alternate Dimension. (Sequel: to 'The Bonds We Make.')
1. Prologue

As usual I do not own Ninja Turtles and if you're starting here just know that this isn't Part 1; check out my profile page for a list.

And now, considering I left the turtles in kind of a evil place last time,

I'll stop ranting and just let you read.

* * *

 _The Trials We Face_

Prologue:

( _3_ _rd_ :)

Leo coughed as he dug himself out of a mound of rubble and looked around to discover the radio station had been completely leveled; along with a few smaller buildings nearby.

Thankfully they had already made sure no one was living in the area; however there had been Black Gators in the vicinity. But thankfully it looked as though the museum had suffered very little damage so it was likely that no one had been seriously hurt.

Leo's attention was quickly brought back to the present when someone else coughed nearby in the process of disentangling themselves from a pile of cords. "Mikey?" He asked before getting up to gently removed a few bricks from the area and found his little brother covered from head to foot in fine white dust. "Are you okay?" He asked as the other turtle carefully crawled out of the heap to cough again.

"Yeah I'm fine." He answered before looking up at him and promptly burst into laugher. "Good grief Leo, you look like a _ghost_."

"Speak for yourself." Leo complained as he pulled his brother to his feet before looking around for his other two siblings. It didn't take long before the sound of something falling got their attention and they quickly climbed a small mountain of debris just as another large section of concrete was pushed over allowing Raph to maneuver himself out of the hole underneath.

"Well that was _fun_." He announced sourly before getting out-of-the-way and allowed Donnie to stand as well.

"I think we should try to get father away next time." Zira stated as the purple clad turtle reached down to help her to her feet.

"Very astute." Donnie informed her sarcastically while Leo and Mikey made their way down to them.

"Is everyone okay?" Leo ordered quickly and they all nodded or otherwise groaned in response.

"What is it with us and _explosions_ lately?" Mikey added dryly as he attempted to dust himself off a little.

"Let's hope that's the last one for a _while_." Raph suggested during the process of popping his back loudly.

"You know I use to have pretty decent luck until I met _you_." Zira suddenly complained as she got up in Donnie's face threateningly.

"Damn – girl's got _tude_!" Mikey whispered in Leo's direction who promptly nodded in agreement.

" _Tell_ me about it!" Raph growled as he folded his arms to glare at the girl but everything was promptly interrupted when Mikey noticed something about his previously missing brother and immediately brought everyone's attention to it.

"Donnie, what happened to your _shoulder_?" He asked in shock, taking in the large hole-shaped scar on both the front and back of his sibling's shell that had certainly not been there the last time they had seen him.

"I got _shot_." He announced sourly still glaring at the female alien from the corner of his eye.

"Don't look at me in that tone a voice, I didn't _ask_ you to take a laser for me." She quailed cheerlessly causing his brothers to nearly defend him, but Donnie quickly waved them away and proceeded to ignore her again.

"Okay what happened here while I was gone?" He requested calmly before he seemed to remember something and added. "Did we miss Kale?"

"It's only been a couple hours; dude." Mikey announced causing Donnie to look at him in shock.

" _Hours_?" He repeated. "That can't be – how long was I gone?" He suddenly asked turning to Leo and Raph instead, who proceeded to think about that for a second before answering.

"No, he's right." Leo finally revealed while he turned to look at the sky in order to judge the position of the sun; which was just starting a show decent toward the end of the skyline. "It's only been about 3 hours." He added before reaching out to catch Donnie when he suddenly looked like he was about to pass out.

"But – I had to be gone for at least three _days_!" Donnie argued in shock.

"Oh; did I fail to mention that time passes _differently_ in other parts of the Universe?" Zira asked causally causing Donnie to round on her.

"YES!" He roared and his brothers promptly jumped before staring at the normally passive turtle in shock while the woman smiled at him sheepishly.

"My bad." She offered sugarly.

"You – I – oh never mind!" Donnie tired to complain before quickly waving her away and turned back to his brothers. "What did I miss?" He demanded sternly; clearly _not_ in the mood for any more surprises.

…

After several minutes of relaying general information that needed to be known at the time, they eventually realized that the Barron wasn't anywhere they could find him and decided to check on the man's troops. However as they arrived at the museum again and looked down inside; they only found the Black Gators just standing around doing nothing.

"Okay; let's – hey!" Leo started to command before Zira quietly dropped through the roof to land on a large display which allowed her to then gracefully make her way to the floor where she proceeded to walk through the crowd like they couldn't even see her.

"What are they waitin' for?" Raph asked curiously when the men continued to just stand around ignoring her.

"To _die_." Donnie realized sadly. "They were probably programmed to wait here until the explosion took them out."

"This Barron guy is really statin' ta piss me off." Raph added before the four of them maneuvered down into the building as well.

"What's going to happen to them now?" Mikey asked genuinely concerned for the people who continued to stand around like living statues.

"Most likely they'll just stand here until they _starve_." Zira answered, folding her arms to look somewhere else causing them all to stare at her in horror.

"Isn't there a way we can _help_ them?" Mikey added quickly.

"Actually _yes_." Donnie proclaimed before turning to Zira and held out his hand for something; but she just proceeded to look from his face to his palm and back again. "Come on Zira; you can't do anything with it now anyway." He added sternly.

"I don't know what you mean." She announced innocently looking back at the wall beside her, obviously intending on just ignore him.

"Zira!" Donnie insisted still holding out his hand and she sighed before reaching into her suit to produce the nano-brain and tossed it at him roughly. "Thank you." He offered as he caught the thing and led the way back to the basement which was still full of the water-like, inactive nano-bots.

Here Donnie carefully activated his surface adapters again and walked out onto the surface where he was able to gently place the brain in the middle of the puddle and started messing with his gantlet again and in a matter of minutes the nano-flood under his feet started to _pulse_ with color before finally settling on blue.

"Okay." He announced as his brothers watched him from the stairs. "They've been programmed to attack and decommission other nano-bots. All we need to do is have the Gators _drink_ a little and it should free them."

"Should?" Zira repeated sourly causing the three turtles next to her to stare at her for a second, as they were not all that accustomed to people questioning Donnie's words, before turning back to their brother.

"Sounds like a plan." Leo agreed.

"Yeah but there are like – _hundreds_ of Gators up there. Not to mention any _others_ that might be floating around the city." Mikey complained truthfully. "This is gonna take _days_."

"Well we only have _two_ before our ride gets here." Leo announced sternly as he stood at his full height again, ready to take command. "So we better get started."

…

Two days later

Kale stood with his arms folded as he watched the city for any sign of the turtles. Though his route no longer brought him to London on a usual basis he could still tell that the city skyline was very different than it had been before.

For one the Big Ben clock tower was no longer there and another section looked like it had been _leveled_ by some kind of explosion, not to mention most of the city was once again under water.

He tried not to worry, but the more he looked at it, and the longer they waited; the more he had to wonder if something had _happened_ to his friends.

"Captain." A voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts kindly and he turned to find Long standing there sadly. "The sun's starting to set; we'll need all the light we can get to navigate the channel."

"I understand." Kale answered simply before giving the man permission to pull the ship away from the docks and start back out to sea leaving Kale to stand in the same place as he watched the city disappeared then quietly made his way below deck.

However when he opened the door to his quarters his attitude became noticeably sunnier as he turned to close it again and smile at the door before turning around to find that his personal space had been overrun with _turtles_.

"You could have just _knocked_." He informed them sternly; but there was no real fire in his words.

* * *

Chapter 1 coming next Tuesday

(Reviews Welcome)


	2. Chapter 1

I don't own Ninja Turtles

* * *

Chapter 1:

"So who's this?" Kale asked of Zira several minutes later.

"I'm his _mate_." She declared as if speaking of the weather while casually pointing a thumb in Donnie's direction which caused the other three turtles to freeze as their eyes grew to the size of quarters.

" _M_ – _ma_ – _mate_?" Mikey repeated looking toward Donnie as the poor guy face-palmed in distress.

"Gees, I leave you alone for 3 minutes and you come back with a _mate_?" Kale proclaimed with a laugh, however it quickly became clear that his brother's didn't think it was so funny, as Leo quickly pushed the purple-clad turtle toward the door.

"Excuse us for a minute." Mikey asked politely as he trotted along behind him; leaving Raph to take a second and turn around to put out his hand in order to stop Zira from following.

"Not you." He ordered sternly and she gave him a look before he slammed the door in her face and ventured down the hall to join his brothers.

" _Mate_?" They all repeated loudly as their target sulked against a wall in discomfort.

"How did _that_ happen?" Mikey added seriously and Donnie sighed before looking at them.

"To be honest – I'm not sure it _did_." He admitted solemnly. "The ceremony was kind of – _interrupted_." He added as he absentmindedly rubbed at his wrist which didn't go unnoticed by the trained ninja around him.

"What's this?" Raph asked, reaching out to gently take Donnie's hand and turn it around so they could see the tattoo there.

"It's called a soul chain." Donnie explained, examining the thing himself and noting that it wasn't as _active_ as the one he had received from the Triceratons; which he hoped was a good sign. "All I know it is _connects_ me to Zira in some way; but I'm not sure how this one goes about it. Before I couldn't even be a few _feet_ away from her without feeling pain, but this vision doesn't seem to follow the same guidelines."

"Okay." Leo stated calmly as he took that in, but was obviously still very confused. "Maybe you should start from the beginning?"

…

Telling his brother's everything that had happened during his time away seemed to be an awkwardly painful excursion for Donnie, so they rarely interrupted in an attempt to make the experience more tolerable for him.

"You have the weirdest adventures when you disappear." Mikey announced jokingly once he had finished.

"Yeah and what about _you guys_?" Donnie suddenly asked in his doctor-voice; studying Leo seriously as he reached out to touch his brother's plastron where a large _bruise_ was forming on the bone itself; (which was no small task.) "What is this?" He added with concern.

He didn't really get the answer he wanted though when Raph suddenly walked away without a word and Leo let out a sigh; forcing Donnie to turn back to Mikey for an explanation; who only gave him a sheepish little smile that his brother immediately interrupted as the 'because they were _fighting_ ' look.

"Are you _serious_?" Donnie demanded sourly of his leader who turned to look at a wall in response. "I can't leave for 3 minutes without you two tearing the family apart?"

"It wasn't like that." Leo countered only to have Mikey shoot him down.

"Yeah it – kinda _was_." He stated earning a glare from his oldest brother.

"Why don't you go entertain our – _guest_?" Leo suggested in a voice that said it was not a question but an _order_ ; causing the youngest turtle to mope as he meandered back down the hall toward Kale's office.

"Don –" Leo started again but his brother quickly gave him a look that told him to shut up.

"Take off your armor." Donnie stated with a deadly calm, determined to check the extent of his injury.

"It's not that big a deal Donnie, it doesn't even hurt anymore." Leo reported. "And I need you to check on Raph." He ordered but the purple-clad turtle clearly wasn't in the mood to follow his commands at the moment.

"I'll be the judge of that thank you very much." He told him calmly, reaching up to remove the gear himself in order to get a better look at the damage, but Leo just backed out of his reach.

"Don –" The oldest started to complain again only to earn himself a glare that fueled the stuff of nightmares

"Leo I didn't work my ass off for five years just for you to tell me how to do my job, now _sit_ _down_!" Don stated sternly but unfortunately this was _Leo_ he was talking to.

"Donnie, this isn't –" His brother started again but said turtle was more than use to his particular brand of stubbornness by now and was prepared to counter it with his own.

"I said SIT!" He demanded loudly causing Leo to promptly shut his mouth and took a seat on the bench behind him with a defeated sigh, where he carefully started to remove his gear. "Thank you." Donnie offered when he was finally able to get a good look at the bruise and went about making sure there wasn't more damage than what was apparent on the surface.

"Are you alright?" Leo suddenly asked off topic a minute later.

"A little pissed off but –" Donnie admitted before his brother interrupted him.

"Not that – this thing with Zira?" He corrected and Donnie looked up at him again as he finished his work.

"She's a complicated person Leo; you shouldn't measure her like an enemy." Donnie started solemnly before sighing and went on. "Despite her outward portrayal she's not a bad person and I do believe she's on our side. Hell within a span of five minutes she went from trying to kill me to saving my life, more than _once_."

Leo thought that over seriously for a moment before answering. "But you said that chain _connects_ you." He asked making sure that his brother understood the double meaning there before he answered.

"She wasn't just trying to save herself." He responded simply and Leo nodded.

"Do you think there's any way to get it off?"

The younger turtle sighed loudly as he looked back at the tattoo on his wrist before responding. "I don't know; this thing was _insurance_ by a very _desperate_ man, a man I actually made a _promise_ to." Donnie stated seriously as he thought over his next words a bit then went on. "And to be honest I'd still like to _keep_ that promise if I can."

Leo watched his brother for a second as if searching for any doubt in his words and nodded again in agreement when he didn't find any. "But that being said –" Donnie continued solemnly. "I'm not sure I _trust_ her – not _yet_ anyway."

Leo closed his eyes as he realized what that meant. Donnie wasn't willing to take Zira to their _clan_ , which meant that he couldn't go _home_ , not until they found a way to remove that chain.

"I would never ask –" Donnie started again but Leo quickly cut him off.

"Forget about it, we're _not_ leaving you alone." He demanded sternly. "We either go back _together_ or not at all."

Donnie couldn't help but smile as he looked at the ground and nodded in agreement. "Thanks."

…

Raph took several deep breaths as he laid his head against a shipping container; trying to clam himself down. After all these years of training to control his anger and strength he had lost it all in the span of a single second and hurt someone he truly cared about and ever since he just couldn't find it in him to _forgive_ himself.

"And you call yourself a _brother_?" A voice in his head declared and he was about to agree when he realized that it hadn't come from _within_ and promptly found himself turning so fast that it made his neck hurt, but he ignored it as he went for his sai upon realizing the person speaking to him was none other than _the_ _Barron_.

"How did ya get here?" Raph demanded loudly causing the man to smirk at him.

"I _walked_." He answered smugly.

"Well yur _not_ gonna _walk back_." The turtle growled before charging the unpleasant individual.

Raph would have been lying if he said that he wasn't _pleased_ to see the man had obviously not expected such an attack, as he was clearly taken off guard which gave the ninja the chance he needed to take him to the ground.

Wasting not a second Raph plunged a sai down toward his face, but the creep moved to avoid the tip leaving the turtle to try again with the same results, but unfortunately this left him open to attack and swiftly received a punch in the jaw.

This left Raph with the understanding that the man was a lot stronger than he looked and quickly decided not to take chances and plunged his other sai into the floor trapping the guy's wrist above him.

However just as he raised his other weapon to strike again someone grabbed him from behind and threw him away like a rag doll. Recovering quickly Raph looked around to find that three other Gators had snuck up while he wasn't looking, clearly intending to defend their master.

He was about to take them all out so he could get back to destroying his original target when one randomly jumped over to get in his face.

" _Release_!" A voice ordered so loudly that he flinched, however when he turned back to the guy he found that he was not longer looking a Gator but – _Zira_.

"Raph what the _hell_ are you doing?" Leo demanded and he turned to find his older brother couched in a protective posture, clearly ready for a fight. However it was what he saw _behind_ Leo that made Raph's heart stop.

Donnie had been trapped on the ground with one of his sai – in the exact same place _the_ _Barron_ had just been.

* * *

Chapter 2 coming next Tuesday

(Reviews Welcome)


	3. Chapter 2

…

Chapter 2:

( _Donnie's POV_ )

After making sure Leo wasn't hurt more than he was letting on I went up on deck to find Raph. I knew he was probably kicking himself for what had happened during my absence and I wanted to make sure he wasn't doing anything too – _drastic_.

It wouldn't be the first time he had hurt one of us and gone off to sulk only to spend hours hitting something that wouldn't yield to him so that in the end he'd meander back with broken bones.

He clamed that it was part of his training to control his temper, but I knew better, it was more like his own personal _punishment_ , because he knew that if he couldn't use his hands he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone again.

It didn't take a genius to see the flaw in that logic and to be honest I was getting sick of having to patch him up. The guy had so much scar tissue on his knuckles that they were now a completely different shade of green and the last time Raph had undergone one of his – _temper_ _controls_ , he had damaged the nerves so bad that I was worried he would actually _lose_ mobility in his right hand.

"There you are." I said as I turned a corner and found him leaning his head against a shipping crate, but once he heard my voice he immediately rounding on me like he had seen a ghost.

"How did ya get here?" He demanded and I stopped in my tracks, slightly shocked by his _serious_ tone.

"I walked?" I stated with a raised eye-ridge, and I was about to ask what was wrong when he actually _growled_ at me.

"Well yur _not_ gonna _walk back_." He suddenly threatened and now I _knew_ something was wrong.

"Raph –" I started again, but he obviously didn't hear me as he promptly interrupted my speech to _charge_.

I may have been _trained_ for this kind of thing; to react without thinking to any kind of threat, but _Raph_ wasn't a _threat_. I had _never_ backed away from one of my brothers in fear and I wasn't about to start now. However it was more my _concern_ that kept me rooted to the spot and soon proved to be my downfall.

Before I'd even realized what had happened I found myself on my back as my brother tried to plunge his weapon into my skull. Thankfully my instincts took over from there and I dodged his attacks like I did every morning when we spared before striking out at his face in an attempt to daze him so I could escape.

However for the first time in my life I wished I had hit him _harder_ ; as he wasted no time in retaliating and I quickly found myself thanking any god that would listen that whatever force controlled him _wasn't_ powerful enough to interrupt his _aim_. For he suddenly pinned my hand to the floor with one of his sai, miraculously missing my arm completely as the three prongs dug into the deck to catch and hold me in place as he raised his other weapon to deliver the final blow.

Thankfully it was at this time that I sensed the presence of my other brothers and Leo appeared in the blink of an eye to grab Raph from behind and throw him off of me before he could loose the element of surprise he had on the much stronger turtle.

"Donnie, are you okay?" Mikey asked in a panic as he knelt down to make sure I was unharmed, but I was forced to ignore him for the moment.

"Leo something's wrong." I told him quickly as my brother struggled with his instinct to pull out his katana, knowing full well that our brother wasn't in his right mind, and it terrified him to think that Raph may actually run himself through on a sword he _couldn't_ _see_.

However before any of us needed to make another move Zira suddenly bounded over to put herself right in front of Raph so she could instigate direct eye contact with him and yelled. " _Release_!"

It was then that I realized she had the ability to _push_ someone even when they were already under the control of someone else, as our brother suddenly flinched like he'd been shot and proceeded to look at her in alarm as if she had suddenly appeared from thin air.

"Raph what the _hell_ are you doing?" Leo ordered sternly clearly scared out of his mind but trying not to show it. However when Raph turned to look at him his eyes quickly fell on Mikey and therefore _me_ , and I realized that he was coming to understand what he'd just done.

Which meant that we had to get him under control – _now_

"Raph it's okay, I'm okay." I told him genuinely, trying to get up so I could go to him but his sai kept me pinned to the floor and not even Mikey and I together to get it to release its grip and what was worse was that my brother clearly didn't hear what I was saying as he suddenly tried to bolt.

"Leo stop him." I begged in a panic but Leo didn't need to be told as he quickly made to get in his path.

"Raph it's okay, let us help you." He stated seriously but our red-clad brother only attempted to back away again like a scared animal, obviously still looking for a way out and when he managed to find another option in the form of a path that we didn't have enough people to block – he took it.

"No!" I called after him but thankfully Zira came to the rescue again and demanded eye contact once more before giving him another order.

" _Sleep_!" She proclaimed in a voice that demanded he obey, and just like that he lost consciousness as Leo arrived to catch him before he hit the ground.

"Is he okay?" Mikey asked in a small voice and Zira turned to look at him which seemed to make her rough exterior melt a little.

"He'll be fine." She told him gently.

"How did you do that?" Leo asked as he laid our brother on the ground.

"I'm an _Influencer_." She answered simply.

"Isn't that the same thing the _Barron_ can do?" I was sure she would have yelled and screamed something fierce about being compared to such a man had that question been asked by anyone other than _Mikey_.

"No –" She muttered before walking over to help him pull up on the sai still keeping me trapped on the ground and with their combined strength were finally able to free me. "It's – _similar_ , but not the same." She added nervously as she looked back at Raph. "I realized he'd been controlled by the Barron before; I thought he would have stayed with you to keep it from happening again."

"What do you mean?" Leo asked seriously while I moved over to check Raph's vitals and make sure he was indeed unharmed.

"The Barron said it himself; the four of you are _too_ _strong_ to control _together_. That's why he was going to take some of you out." She explained truthfully. "There must have been a time when your brother was _alone_ otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get his claws in so deep."

"What you just did –" Leo started again as he stood up to speak with her. "Did you _free_ him?"

"Not _entirely_." She admitted. "You can't be controlled if you're _unconscious_ , and the Barron is stronger than I am, he'll be able to get into his mind again if he's ever alone."

"But I thought he needed those _nano-bot_ things to control someone?" Mikey asked before seemingly coming up with the answer himself as everyone else realized the same thing.

"Oh no." I said quietly, looking down at my brother again as he slept.

"What?" Zira asked of Leo and he slowly turned to look at her before explaining.

"He _was_ infected with the Barron's nano-bots; but we thought our own could fight them off."

"That would explain why the Barron resorted to _this_." She proclaimed thoughtfully and we turned to her again. "He wasn't actually _controlling_ him; it was more like he was – _showing_ him something that would generate the reaction he wanted."

"I agree." I muttered solemnly. "He didn't act like a Black Gator; he just didn't see _– me_."

"So that's probably it." Zira continued getting our attention again as she thought over the information before her. "If your nano-bots are what's keeping the Barron from controlling him it would make sense that having _more_ around would block the signal more completely."

"So that's why he's able to stay in control when _we're_ here?" Mikey guessed and she nodded.

"But that's not going to help if he keeps trying to _run_ _away_." She added truthfully.

"And here I thought he was _fine_." I proclaimed distractedly and shock my head in denial, realizing that I should have checked him out more thoroughly.

"It wasn't your fault Donnie." Leo told me, gently laying his hand on my shoulder.

"I'm not sure I agree with that." I admitted solemnly. "But beating myself up about it isn't going to do us any good. We need to shut down those nano-bots before this happens again."

Leo nodded in agreement though I could tell from the look in his eyes that he wasn't finished with his earlier remark, however he was willing to let it wait while we dealt with the more pressing problem.

"Tell us what you need."

…

( _3_ _rd_ _:_ )

Raph had a serious headache upon waking up so it took him a minute to open his eyes, but when he did he panicked slightly as he looked up to see the shadow covered surface of a metal roof and a simple hanging light, like the one used in interrogation rooms on TV.

"Easy!" Donnie demanded when his brother suddenly bolted into a sitting position. "Zira, you said he'd stay out longer than that." He complained sternly.

"It varies on the person." She proclaimed innocently from the corner where she folded her legs and regarded the scene with a bored expression.

"We need to work on your _communication_ skills." Leo informed her before turning back to Raph. "You okay?" He didn't receive an answer though as Raph proceeded to look around in a panic, clearly trying to find the exit.

"Don't even _think_ about." Donnie told him sternly causing his brother to finally look at him. "The whole reason we set you up in _here_ was to make sure you _didn't_ run away."

"But –" Raph finally started to say before he was interrupted by a hand on his shoulder and turned to see his baby brother.

"Just take it easy bro, okay." Mikey requested with a little smile. "We'll explain."

"First off –" Leo started again clearly getting ready to lay down some ground rules. "No running away." He proclaimed seriously and continued to explain before Raph could protest. "The only reason you have the control you _do_ is because of your close proximity to _us_. If you _left_ the Barron could control you again and next time he could make you do _anything_. Now you don't want _that_ , do you?"

"No." Raph admitted clearly still too shocked to really put up a decent fight like he would have otherwise. "But –" He started again before being interrupted once more when Donnie suddenly pulled a needle out of his arm. "Ow!" He complained dramatically.

"Baby." Donnie told him with a smirk as he removed another needle from his own arm and Raph realized the two were actually connected through a blood donation tube.

"What happened?" Raph quickly demanded showing a little of his old self again as he got himself worked up into a frenzy. "Who needed _blood_?"

"You did." Mikey answered before going on. "Well – not exactly – you needed some more _nano-bots_."

"I programmed them the same way I programmed the others, you should be just fine now." Donnie finished as he curled up the tube and laid it on a table. "But you're still not going anywhere." He added unquestionably. "Because I intend to keep an eye on you _this_ _time_."

"Donnie this isn't _your_ fault." Raph refuted sternly, trying to redirect the blame back onto himself. "I was the one that –"

"No you didn't." Donnie told him kindly, refusing to let his brother bury himself deeper in that well of self-loathing and guilt he was so good at forming. "It was the _Barron_ ; no one else is to blame."

"But I – _attacked_ you." He countered with shame.

"So what, last I checked you do it every time we _spar_ too." Donnie informed him truthfully. "I was just taken off guard."

"Yeah but ya _shouldn't_ have had ta _BE_ on guard." Raph suddenly yelled and everyone winced as his voice ricocheted around the metal room for a minute.

"So what do you want me to do Raph?" Donnie asked gently causing his brother to look at him again. "Live in a little bubble so I can't ever be hurt again? _Flinch_ every time you walk in a room?" He added seriously. "Because that's _not_ gonna happen." He declared with a stern expression.

This made it pretty clear that Donnie wasn't going to put up with any _argument_ , which caused Raph to just look at his hands again as he gave up trying to convince his little brother to hate him and proceeded to sulk for another minute.

"Okay this is getting too depressing." Mikey announced impatiently before jumping off the table he'd been sitting on. "It's dinner time, so why don't we go get some food and try to cheer up a little?" He added excitedly.

"I second that." Zira proclaimed randomly.

"Yeah okay." Raph agreed after a minute, though he still didn't look at them which caught Leo's attention quickly and caused him to quickly walk over to stand in front of the red-clad turtle.

"You will _not_ run away." Their leader announced again in that voice he reserved only for his most _strict_ orders. "Am I understood?" He added causing Raph to finally look at him in consideration before nodding. "I want to hear you _say it_." Leo added sternly.

"I swear." Raph stated in a whisper leaving Leo to watch him for a minute; looking for any indication that he might be lying before nodding as well and reached out to help his brother off the table.

A moment later Mikey had knocked a rhythm into the door and someone opened it from the other side which allowed Raph to realize that they had been inside a _shipping container_.

"How'd it go?" Kale asked seriously leaving Donnie to explain the situation while they all headed down into the ship to get some food.

…

Raph was unusually quite during dinner, he hardly talked and he was so zoned out that his brothers had to keep reminding him to eat. Even Mikey's near constant shenanigans to get under his shell and receive a rise of some kind were only met with the rare sidewise look and an occasional sigh, which only made things that much more awkward now that Leo was constantly watching him to make sure the turtle didn't slip away unnoticed.

"Well this is fun." Zira proclaimed sarcastically as she folded her legs and arms to lean back in her chair a little. Apparently Mikey couldn't have agreed more for he quickly took advantage of the first spoken words in several minutes to make another attempt at breaking the ice.

"So – Zira." He started calmly as he looked down at the plate before her which she hadn't touched. "Aren't you hungry?"

"I don't need food?" She answered with a smile.

"So what do you live on than – _light_?" He asked skeptically.

"Energy." She corrected. "I absorb it through my skin, kind of like how the four of you absorb minerals from the sun. Except I don't _need_ anything else to keep me going."

"– Okay that's _weird_." He countered strangely. "Why wouldn't you need _food_? There are so many _delicious_ possibilities." He added looking down at his own plate which only consisted of a soggy sandwich and an apple.

"Okay that's a bad example." He proclaimed pushing the tray away as he turned back to her. "But there's still so much _more_ out there, spaghetti, hamburgers – _pizza_. Girl you haven't _lived_ 'tell you've tried pizza."

This caused her to laugh genuinely at the little twit as he went on about the wonders of the aforementioned wheel of cheesy joy until the short reprieve was interrupted.

"So what's yur _real_ agenda?" Raph proclaimed sternly which made everyone jump a little as that was the most he had said in hours. They were beginning to think he had decided to go into the business of _mime_.

But of course Zira remained as cool as a cucumber as she turned to him with her usual little smirk of entertainment. "What's the matter Red, you don't _like_ me?" She asked sugarly.

"No!" He responded seriously. "Now answer the question." He demanded and she scoffed before turning a little to make eye contact with him and smile when she seemed to recognize something there.

"So _that's_ it, you're worried I'm gonna take your brother away again?" She reveled and Raph actually growled.

"Yur not exactly _secretive_ about yur desire ta get back ta whatever it is ya do." He started seriously. "What I want ta know is what ya intend ta do about _that_?" He demanded pointing toward the tattoo on her wrist. "We don't know what that thing _does_ or how it works. How da we know yur not plannin' ta just leave and _force_ Donnie ta go with ya?"

"Come on Red, do I look like the kind of person who would do that?" She asked smugly as he continued to glare at her.

"Yes." He answered sternly and she smiled. "You already tried ta _sell_ him, why wouldn't ya try again?"

"Because being stranded on an out of date, backwater planet can really mess with one's _agenda_." She proclaimed simply.

"But ya don't need ta _leave_ the planet, do ya?" He insisted with a growl. "Ya just need ta wait for the right moment and then meet up with yur _friend_ the _Barron_."

This was obviously the wrong thing to say to her, as she immediately lost her smile and cool demeanor to zero in on him more closely. "You really think I would _work_ for someone who _destroyed_ my clan?" She demanded seriously but he didn't let up.

"Donnie told us about all those _lies_ ya feed him." Raph continued sternly. "Why should we believe ya an't lyin' _now_?"

"Why don't you just get to the point?" She suddenly ordered. " _Clearly_ you're leading up to something and I don't have the time or the patience to listen to you _gloat_."

"It may have been a _illusion_ – but I _saw_ him." Raph began again seriously as his brothers waited calmly on the sidelines incase they needed to separate the two. "The Barron is one a _yur kind_."

"I knew you were thickheaded but I didn't think you were _stupid_." She proclaimed calmly. "That isn't a _secret_ , you already _knew_ that."

"Yeah but he's _more_ than that _isn'_ _he_?" He went on sternly. "I know what I saw, he looked _just like you_."

"What?" Zira demanded suddenly shocked, which led the other turtles to look between the two as they tried to figure out what they were missing.

"He isn't just another member a yur _clan_." Raph continued, nearly yelling by this point. "He's your _brother_ , your _twin_ brother."

"What?" Leo demanded sternly but unfortunately it was clear by the way Zira was just _staring_ at Raph that he wasn't going to receive an answer.

However the shock only continued to set in for several seconds more before her pupils suddenly constricted like that of a cat's and her eyes began to glow with an anger none of them had seen. But before anyone could move to intercept her – she _attacked_.

Everyone was on their feet as Raph's shell hit the ground with Zira bearing down on top of him like an angle of death in a fit of rage.

"You're _LYING_!" She screamed striking at his face with her claws but he quickly raised an arm to protect himself. Thankfully she wasn't given the chance to try again before Donnie grabbed her from behind and hauled her away.

"You're _lying_." She demanded again as she struggled to get out of his grip but he quickly maneuvered so he could trap her arms and control her movement while she continued to repeat those two words, causing her tone to grow quieter and quieter as she became more and more desperate to disprove him.

"You're lying." She said again in distress before suddenly turning to bury her face in Donnie's shoulder as she struggled to contain her tears. "He's lying, he's lying." She revised as he tried to sooth her, clearly in shock himself.

It took several minutes but finally all they could hear was her crying as Leo walked over to help Raph to his feet again. "You alright?" He asked feeling like he was asking that question _a lot_ lately.

"Yeah." He answered, solemnly touching his face where Zira had scratched him before looking back at Donnie while he continued his attempt to calm her, but was obviously not succeeding from the way he looked back at his brothers with a very _lost_ expression.

"I'm sorry –" Raph offered genuinely. "I thought – I thought she was _with_ him – I thought she _knew_."

"It's okay." Donnie told him quickly as Zira curled up a little tighter into his lap.

"What do you say we give the lady some space?" Long suddenly spoke up as he started herding the other sailors from room leaving them alone in the cafeteria, though to be honest the turtles had all but forgotten they were even there in the first place.

"Hey Donnie." Mikey started softly as he knelt down next to his brother. "You're _bleeding_." He finished pointing at Donnie's arms which now featured several little scratches from the short skirmish.

"Yeah." The purple-clad ninja agreed quietly while his little brother used a couple napkins that were now scattered all over the floor to clean up the cuts as much as he could, which caused Zira to look around once she had finally gained control of herself again.

Neither of them spoke to her, instead choosing to give her the chance to start the conversation if she wanted. But it seemed she was a little more concerned with her – _mate_ , as she proceeded to carefully lick her finger which she then rubbed across one of the cuts on his arm, causing it to heal over almost instantly.

"That's impressive." Donnie told her with a smile which she returned for half a second before turning back to her work and closed the rest of his wounds.

"You don't _lick_ yourself when you're hurt?" She asked in a small voice clearly trying to change the subject to something she could actually deal with, no matter how _weird_ that subject might be.

"I don't make a habit of it." Donnie informed her truthfully before she finished her task and he moved his arms a little to check the stability of the healing as she carefully maneuvered herself out of his lap and walked over to right her chair again, but instead of sitting she just stared at it like she was at a lose of what to do next.

Everything was quiet again as Donnie slowly got back to his feet, still keeping an eye on her for a second before turning back to Leo again. "Okay, what do you say we –" He started before looking around the room in a hurry as he noticed something about the picture before him that he _really_ didn't like.

" _Where's_ _Raph_?"

* * *

Reviews are welcome

XD


	4. Chapter 3

I don't own

* * *

Chapter 3:

( _3_ _rd_ _:_ )

Before his brothers could catch on, Raph quietly merged into the crowd of people leaving the room and maneuvered into some empty halls to make his way back up to the deck, insuring that he avoided anyone in the off chance that they were aware of his _grounding_.

When he was finally outside again he couldn't help but take a deep breath before looking around for anything out of the ordinary.

In truth he knew that his brothers were right and that he should stay with them in order to stop the Barron from gaining control, but that wasn't how he rolled, he didn't sit around in a protective group when something was clearly wrong, he went out to track it down and take it on face to face.

And if the Barron really could control what he was seeing then he wanted to learn to _recognize_ it; so in the off chance that it happened again he would _know_. He couldn't keep relying on Zira to bring him back, not that he _wanted_ to.

He had honestly thought she was with their enemy, but for her to break down like she had; _shocked_ them all. That was a pain they hadn't experienced but still _recognized_ all too well.

To _cry_ for a brother she'd long ago accepted was gone, only to learn was that he was _alive_ – yet still lost to her all the same.

He considered this as he spent the net several minutes making his way though the maze of shipping crates, searching for the Baron's phenomenon, only to realize that it probably wasn't going to happen again.

Donnie knew his stuff and if he said that a simple blood transfusion was enough to stop the man from manipulating his mind then Raph was inclined to believe him.

And speaking of which

"Donnie?" He stated in shock when he rounded a corner and suddenly came face to face with his clearly not happy little brother. "I – I can explain." He attempted but before he could continue Donnie removed the staff from his back and took on a fighter's stance.

"Don – what are ya doin'?" Raph asked in confusion as he backed up a step, but his brother didn't answer and instead just charged; forcing Raph to dodge. "Donnie what's wrong?" He tried again only to dodge again when he was attacked once more.

"Donnie!" He demanded sternly when his brother suddenly swung his staff out and nearly took Raph's head off and he quickly backed out of his range in order to collect his thoughts.

Was this another vision brought on by the nano-bots? Was he going crazy, or was it hisbrother who was under the Barron's control this time?

"Don!" Raph tried again only to duck around another attack before coming up a few feet away to take out a sai and catch his brother's staff when the next strike came down in an attempt to cleave him in half.

"Come on bro." Raph continued to argue as Donnie maneuvered his staff in an attempt to hit his side but Raph quickly pulled out his other sai and caught both ends of the weapon. "Talk ta me!" He added sternly but it was clear that Donnie wasn't hearing him as he just twisted the two ends of his staff and _pulled_.

In the span of a second Raph suddenly had the two hidden _blades_ his brother had crafted for the weapon bearing down on him from above and below.

Thankfully Donnie wasn't as good as Leo when it came to sword play but he had designed the weapons to be light and maneuverable in order to better compensate for his lack of skill, which made Raph suddenly wish he had never _suggested_ the things.

He remembered a time when his brother had been _terrified_ of a sword in any form even _wood_ , but Raph had worked with him long and hard to get him over that fear and part of that training had involved encouraging his brother to actually _wield_ one as his primary weapon.

The hidden blades had been _perfect_ and as he grew accustomed to their weight and design Donnie had gradually stopped fearing the unknown and focused more on the knowledge and skill he was achieving. That was how he _learned,_ he was a knowledge seeker in every sense of the word and that was what Raph had used to get him past that anxiety – and it had _worked_.

The same way Donnie had learned to train _him_ through the use of strength and stubbornness, because that was what he _responded to_.

It was this sudden realization that caused Raph actually flinch like he's been struck which unfortunately left him vulnerable to his brother's next attack and he quickly found himself on the ground with Donnie kneeling on his hands so he couldn't move as one of the blades appeared at his throat.

But Raph wasn't scared or even angry anymore; instead he just _smiled_ as he looked up into his brother's eyes and nodded in understanding.

"Okay brother, ya win." He told him truthfully causing Donnie to grin back before getting to his feet and reached down to help Raph up as well.

"So I _knocked_ some sense into you did I?" He asked sternly as he pushed his staff back together and proceeded to give Raph an expecting look.

"Yeah." The older of the two answered with a sour little laugh and rubbed the back of his head where he'd hit the ground. "Ya certainly did." He agreed but Donnie just proceeded to sheath his weapon with a grouchy look in his direction.

"And?" He insisted stubbornly causing Raph to quickly become irritated with him.

"And ya can obviously take care a yurself." He added seriously.

"And?" Donnie proclaimed again as he folded his arms.

"And there's no reason for me ta beat myself up for somethin' I had no control over." Raph tried again tiredly.

"And?"

"And I'm gonna kick yur ass if ya say ' _and'_ one more time." Raph growled in a furry leaving Donnie to smile.

"Now _there's_ the Raph I remember." He announced before looking around to find Leo and Mikey watching them with a level of pride and amusement that only their brothers could manage.

"Oh great!" Raph complained toward the sky sourly as Mikey bounded over in a fit of words.

"Dude Donnie that was _epic_. What was that one move? And that other one with the _woosh_ thing, that was so cool. Ya gotta show me how you did that! Can you –"

Thankfully Donnie reached out at that moment to close the little twit's beak and grant them all some blessed silence as the endless string of outward thoughts came to a halt before Mikey died of asphyxiation.

"I'll think about it." Donnie answered simply causing the younger turtle to pout and the others to laugh, which Raph quickly decided was a really good sound.

* * *

Reviews are always helpful and welcome

(But please keep the _mean_ ones to yourself)

X)


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

( _Donnie's POV_ )

"Good to know the only thing we need to do to get you to see reason is kick your ass." Leo proclaimed with a smirk as they walked down the halls of the ship again.

"Ha, ha." Raph declared sourly; but before he could counter with one of his usual threats Mikey interrupted the confrontation.

"Hey Donnie." He started in a voice that was clearly confused about something. "You're – _glowing_."

"What?" I stated looking down at my right hand which was indeed admitting a faint gold light from the soul chain.

"What does that mean?" Raph demanded quickly, trying to find out if I was in any danger.

"I need to find Zira." I answered slowly before running though the ship to the room where she was staying and quietly knocked on the door. "Zira?" I asked the room beyond when I received no response.

"What?" She demanded quickly making me jump a little.

"Some – something's going on with the _chain_ , are you alright?" I asked kindly but didn't receive an answer this time which had me looking to my brothers for help.

"It's probably nothin'." Raph told me dismissively. "Most women are like that." He added knowledgably and lord only knew he'd seen the same thing with Liza several dozen times already.

"Yeah but she's not _most_ _women_." I countered. "I've _never_ seen her like this."

"You've only known her for about a week dude." Mikey proclaimed truthfully which I couldn't very well deny, but thankfully Leo came to my rescue.

"Why don't you talk to her, she seems to trust you." He started simply as he laid a hand on Raph and Mikey's shoulder to steer them away. "We'll be here if you need us." He added before pushing the two down the hall so I could have a little privacy.

"Yeah right." I complained rubbing my head dramatically, 'what was I supposed to _say_?' But I just sighed as I looked back at the door before reaching out to knock again. "Zira, are you decent?"

'Yeah that's a _perfect_ way to start a conversation.' I thought sarcastically to myself.

"Yes." Came her response and judging from the little laugh in her voice she thought so too.

"May I come in?" I decided to add just in case.

"Sure why not?" She proclaimed and I quietly opened the door to find her curled up on the end of one of the beds looking out the window.

"You okay?" I asked gently as I realized that she had actually removed her gear in favor of just donning the more comfortable clothes she wore underneath, which kind of had me worried. Normally she didn't like being without her suit, she even _slept_ in the thing.

"I thought you were taking care of Red." She countered without looking at me.

"I was." I admitted as I walked over to sit on the other bed. "But he's fine, just a little antsy." I added as I continued to watch her. "You know he didn't mean to hurt you, he just – didn't know."

"I know." She admitted still watching the waves outside the window. "I might have overacted a little myself." She proclaimed with a laugh clearly trying to gather her wits again.

" _No_ you didn't." I told her sternly which finally caused her to look at me. "You just found out your own _brother_ may have been responsible for destroying your clan. The way I see it you're reaction was _appropriate_."

She smiled a little as she took that in before looking back at the window again. "Yeah but does your _brother_ believe that?" She countered snottily; once again attempting to change the subject, but I wasn't going to let her off that easily. She couldn't just let something like this bottle up until there was nowhere left for it to go.

"Raph is a hard nut to crack but that's only because he's so _passionate_." I told her truthfully causing the smallest of smiles to appear on her face which she hid very well. "In truth he responds _best_ to violence." I continued seriously. "You probably wouldn't have gained his trust any other way."

"You say that like he doesn't still _hate_ me." She proclaimed and I winced slightly.

"I don't deny that." I admitted. "But he's _always_ been a little – _aggressive_ , hell the first time he saw Leo he punched him right in the face."

She actually laughed at that and I found I couldn't help but smile as I realized it was a genuine giggle and not one of her usual scoffs of fakeness. "I admit, now that I've met them I – I see why you wanted to come back so badly." She stated somewhat sadly.

"Yeah, they're great." I proclaimed trying to move so I could see her face without her knowing I was doing so. "You just lost a brother, I can understand that and I know we're not the same but – you _don't_ have to push us away."

"You don't understand anything Donnie." She proclaimed seriously and I didn't miss the fact that; that was the first time she had called me by _name_. "My brother died a long time ago, the Barron _killed_ him."

I sighed again as I leaned over my knees to look at the floor and took that in. "I _do_ understand." I told her quietly and noticed how she turned ever so slightly to look at me again. "I – I lost a brother _too_."

"What?" She asked in shock, turning to face me completely. "But I thought –"

"Leo, Raph and Mikey are the only ones that know. I've never told _anyone_ _else_ about him – not even my _father_." I admitted solemnly and looked up as well. "He was with me in the beginning, but he was – _taken_."

I had to take a deep breath to calm my nerves before I was able to go on again, but she was understandably silent as she waited. "He – he _died_ in my arms." I finally finished causing her to straighten up as she took that in.

"I guess – we _do_ have a lot in common." She answered after a few minutes and I nodded. "What did you mean by 'in the beginning'?" She asked then and I quietly sat up straighter again.

"I've already revealed _one_ deep-dark-secret." I told her sternly. "And that's already _too much_ for one day." She smiled at that and nodded in understanding before speaking up herself.

"I admit I – I _suspected_ that my brother might actually be the Barron." She admitted solemnly. "I never found his body." She added tiredly before taking a breath of her own and went on. "I guess I just didn't want to believe it. But I didn't mean to – to _lie_ to you again."

"It's okay." I told her truthfully. "I'm getting kind of _use_ to it." I added with a smile which caused her to glare at me.

"You really know how to ruin a moment." She proclaimed and I laughed before looking up when there was a knock on the door.

"Yeah?" I asked it calmly.

"Captain needs you guys on deck." A sailor on the other side told us simply. "Your brothers are already headed up."

"Okay, thank you." I offered him kindly before looking back at Zira with a sigh. "Sounds important." I announced and got to my feet. "I'll be –" I started again only to look around and find her following me.

"What, am I not allowed?" She declared with a hand on her hip and I scoffed.

"Would that _stop you_?" I countered with a raised eye-ridge and she smiled.

"Probability not." She admitted leaving me to sigh again before walking out into the hall where we started making our way up to the bridge.

…

"Hey." Mikey's voice called as we neared our destination and I looked around to find my brothers had just made it to the top of the stairs a few feet away. "You feeling better?" He asked Zira after skipping up to her happily and she smiled.

"Much." She announced. "What's got you so happy?" She added skeptically and he beamed.

"I'm just excited that Donnie's actually got a _girlfriend_." He admitted which suddenly left me in the middle of a coughing fit as his words seemed to penetrate my throat and scurry down the wrong tube, causing Leo to sympathetically pat me on the back as Zira took full advantage of my inability to talk and pressed my little brother for further information.

"Why do you say that?" She asked curiously and Mikey quickly answered despite my obvious disapproval toward the action.

"He's always cooped up in his lab, makes him really _antisocial_." He proclaimed with a look in my direction which made me wish I could spontaneously combust his little green ass. "And on top of that he's –" He started again to my horror but Raph quickly came to my rescue and clamped a hand over his mouth before steering him though a doorway.

I honestly could have _kissed_ him.

However all thoughts of girlfriends and whether or not I was disagreeable quickly flew out the window as we walked onto the bridge only to find a man looking at us over his steepled fingers with an obvious smirk on his face.

"Hello boys." He proclaimed in his usual slimy tone which made us all severely uneasy as Leo took another step toward him and greeted the man by name.

" _Bishop_ , to what do we owe the displeasure?"

* * *

Just a little fluff, but not to worry Bishop = Action

;)


	6. Chapter 5

I do not Own Ninja Turtles

* * *

Chapter 5:

( _3_ _rd_ _:_ )

"I must admit I'm impressed." Bishop proclaimed calmly as they all stared at him for a moment before taking a seat around the table.

"And who are _you_?" Zira demanded sternly, clearly picking up on the turtle's anxiety toward the man, which caused him to smile at her.

"I guess you could say that I am their – _benefactor_." He explained simply, leaving her to raise an eyebrow at him in disbelief.

"You mean you actually _work_ for this piece of garbage?" She asked of Donnie, which left the turtles to attempt hiding their surprise; for she'd basically just proved that she _knew_ exactly who he was.

"Well its official." Raph started sourly. " _Everyone_ hates this guy." Bishop's smile dropped a little with that remark but he didn't otherwise show any interest.

"What do you want Bishop?" Leo commanded sternly in an attempt to get them back on the subject.

"Well first I would like to thank Donatello for the suit, it was most helpful." The man continued simply as his eyes turned to look at said turtle. "Though I do wish you could have given me a little more _warning_ , that plant destroyed some very _expensive_ equipment."

Donnie was obviously _very_ sympathetic as he grinned with pleasure and responded in kind. "What I would have _paid_ to see that?" He proclaimed causing Mikey and Zira to laugh lightly as the man rolled his eyes and turned back to Leo.

"My people informed me that the Barron's _entire_ London fleet was freed a few days ago." He continued calmly. "We're looking into the possibly of an _air-born_ solution now. I'll let you know our results."

"Is that _all_?" Leo asked; sourly folding his arms to lean back in his chair in a board fashion.

"Not exactly." Bishop went on. "We also picked up some _teleportation_ action in the area." In went on looking toward Zira for a second before continuing. "They both came from a _new_ signal we've never seen before, however the _incoming_ transport was _interrupted_ by the Barron and redirected into one of his _bases_."

"That explains a lot." Zira commented sourly as she had been trying to figure out from day one _why_ she and Donnie had been teleported directly into the Barron's _cage_ of all places.

"Whatever it was it actually helped us _greatly_." Bishop proclaimed suddenly. "Because we were focused on the new signal at the time we were able to piggyback on the Barron's when he interrupted it, which allowed us to _find_ where he was hiding."

"Where?" Leo demanded quickly causing the man to scoff.

"Let's just say it's no wonder we couldn't track him _before_." Bishop began with a annoyed expression. "The son-of-bitch is on the _moon_." He added sourly.

"You're kidding." Donnie announced in slight shock

"What, don't like the moon?" Zira asked sassily obviously not surprised by this new development at all.

"I prefer my oxygen without a _can_." He answered absentmindedly.

"Well we've got those _rockets_ right?" Mikey suggested happily, clearly way too excited about this. "We can go up and kick his galactic butt."

"The last time we went to the moon the _mutagen_ hitched a ride on the way back and – well, you _know_ what happened after that." Bishop informed him sourly. "Anything that could have been infected was destroyed. So _no,_ we _don't_ have the rockets."

"Well you built it once, can't you build it again?"

"It would take _years_." Donnie answered distractedly. "Plenty of time for the Barron to figure out what we're doing and _stop_ it."

"Oh." Mikey declared dryly, his hopes and dreams of being the second turtle in space; dashed.

"Bishop?" Donnie put in again clearly curious about something that had crossed his mind. "How _long_ do you think he's been there?"

"Yes we thought of that as well." The man admitted leaving the other turtles to look between the two in the hopes of boarding their train of thought.

" _What_ as well?" Leo asked simply.

"The Barron may very well have been the _cause_ of the mutagen outbreak." Bishop explained causing everyone to sit up straighter.

"What?" Leo demanded in disbelief.

"It can't be a _coincidence_ that he's floating about the same area where Apollo 11 came in contact with the stuff." Donnie added thoughtfully, before looking away from Bishop as he continued. "After hearing this, I'd honestly find it harder to believe that he _didn't_ have something to do with it."

"Which means that he's been planning this for a _very_ long time." Bishop put in before they could get too far off track. "And that leads me to my _next_ question –" He went on looking toward Zira again. "The _teleporter_?"

"What about it?" She asked sternly.

"You _have_ it?" He demanded.

"And what if I _do_?"

"That thing could be the difference between our planet's survival or its destruction." He went on seriously. "If you have it – I _want_ it."

"And what are you going to _give_ me for it Sergeant Eyebrows." She declared gracefully and it quickly became apparent that the man did _not_ approve of his new nickname even though the turtles obviously thought it was great.

"You really have no place to be so _demanding_." He countered; however that comment was quickly refuted.

"Check yourself Bishop." Leo ordered sternly making sure to keep eye contact with the man as he spoke. "It may not have happened the way we would have _liked_ , but Zira is officially a member of _our_ _clan_ and as such she is under _our_ protection. If you do _anything_ to hurt her – you _will_ pay."

Bishop narrowed his eyes at that remark before sitting up a little straighter in understanding. "Very well." He agreed reluctantly. "I wouldn't want to jeopardize our – _civil_ agreement." He added clearly not happy with the turn of events but was willing to get over it as he looked back at Zira again.

"What do you want?" He asked a little kinder than he had before, but for the first time since Donnie had met her she didn't make an outright demand for cash or other valuables and instead just turned to look at Leo, clearly _shocked_ by his words.

Their leader noticed her look however and nodded that she could do whatever she saw fit, causing her to look back at Bishop seriously. "I'll get you the schematics." She offered without question causing everyone to stare at her in surprise. "I'm afraid the original would be _useless_ to you." She continued calmly. "You'll have to make one that can be powered by something on _this_ planet."

Bishop seemed to consider that for a moment before nodding again. "Very well." He agreed before reaching into his coat to pull out a little voice recorder which he placed on the table. "I'm afraid I also have some bad news to report." He stated off topic as he turned back to Leo. "I did say I would grant you any information on Shredder."

"You did." Leo agreed quietly clearly not happy to hear that.

"We managed to decode a little section of another signal we found being transmitted from the moon." Bishop continued before pushing a button on the contraption which caused it to start admitting a loud static. "And I don't think you'll like what we found." He added before leaning back to fold his arms and listened.

The turtles proceeded to lean forward as the static continued for another minute until finally a voice that they clearly recognized as the Barron's spoke up scratchily amongst the sound. "Shredder!" The static flared for a minute after that, until finally the voice returned to complete the message. "We have a new target and I get the feeling you've _already_ _met_."

"Oh _great_!" Raph complained running a hand down his face as Bishop reached out to turn the box off again, when clearly all it was going to continue playing was more static.

"When did you receive this?" Leo asked seriously.

"Two days ago." Bishop answered calmly, returning the little device to his jacket. "I tired to contact you sooner but by the time we made it to London you were already gone."

"Oh boy." Donnie groined causing Zira to look at him again.

"I take it Mr. Kitchen-Utensil isn't a _happy_ person?" She asked curiously.

"You could say that." He answered sourly.

"Any _more_ good news ya'd like ta share?" Raph asked of the man dryly.

"You might also like to know that we received this signal after quite a bit of _drag_ , which means it could have easily been transmitted as late as four maybe even _five_ days ago." Bishop added sternly causing Raph to throw his hands in the air.

" _Why_ do I ask these questions?" He demanded of himself sourly.

"Okay." Leo started again taking a deep breath in order to calm his nerves and looked back at Bishop as he went on. "– Thank you – for bringing this to us." He offered in a tone of voice that suggested he was working really hard not to spit out the words like spoiled milk.

"You'll find that I can be quite _reasonable_ when the time calls for it." Bishop declared as he reached into his coat again to pull out another little device, though this one looked to be nothing more than a simple cell phone.

"In case you need to get a hold of me or the other way around." He explained and quietly laid it on the table before standing up again. "Take it or leave it, it's _your_ choice." He offered as a final word before walking out the door and down the hall.

"Well – now what?" Mikey asked a few minutes later after he couldn't stand the silence anymore, but just when Leo was about to answer; Donnie's shell-cell started ringing only to be answered by putting the thing on speaker phone so everyone could hear.

"Hello Leatherhead." He greeted simply after checking the caller ID.

"Donatello." The voice of _Splinter_ said instead which made all the turtles genuinely calmer as they listened to the sound of their father's voice. "Are you all alright?"

"Yes father we're fine." Leo answered and they clearly heard the sound of him sighing in relief which made them nervous again. "Why, what's happened?" Leo quickly added.

"I just received a message from August." Splinter explained seriously. "April and Casey are _missing_."

* * *

 _Nice_ Reviews Welcome


	7. Chapter 6

Updates will now take place on Tuesdays _and_ Fridays, Thank you my Readers for all of your support... XD

Enjoy

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Chapter 6:

( _3_ _rd_ _:_ )

"I just received a message from August." Splinter explained seriously. "April and Casey are _missing_."

…

"Who?" Zira asked the phone in confusion but nobody answered her as Leo quickly spoke up again.

"Mikey!" He ordered, causing the youngest turtle to promptly bolt from the room without any need for further explanation. At the same time Raph was handing over his own phone to Donatello so he could make a call; while Leo continued to talk with their father, all of which was accomplished in perfect sync, as if they were reading each other's thoughts.

"We'll find them Sensei." Leo told the phone as they started down the hall leaving Raph to rush ahead and collect their gear. "No father; that isn't –" He started to refute but clearly the ninja master on the other side of the line wasn't going to be denied.

"Very well." Leo agreed and looked over as Donnie got in contact with August and started collecting any information that might help them while Zira just continued to follow along, watching with a collection of confusion and amazement.

Within the span of just a few minutes they had all reconvened back on the main deck where Mikey had managed to stop Bishop just before his helicopter took off again and Raph showed up with Kale and the first lieutenant in tow a moment later.

"What the hell is going on?" Kale demanded quickly; obviously irate about the fact that the unpleasant man had yet to leave his ship.

"Something's happened." Donnie announced, putting away the phone again. "Casey and April can't be found."

"What?" Kale asked in shock, but unfortunately they didn't _have_ any more information to give him.

"Bishop." Leo started as said man walked up to them again. "Our friends need help; we need to get to New York."

Thankfully the guy seemed to understand that this was a matter of urgency and looked back toward his pilot without any question. "Do we have room?" He yelled over the sound of the engine and the man quickly did a check of something before turning back to his boss and nodded.

"Alright, get in." Bishop ordered as he turned back around to finally embark the transportation vehicle without interruption.

"Now _wait_ just a minute!" Zira suddenly ordered and everyone turned to look at her. "I am _not_ getting in that thing. That is the most _pathetic_ excuse of an out of date flying machine I've ever _seen_."

"Fine, ya can stay _here_." Raph announced with little disappointment in his voice as he jumped onto the vessel with Mikey right behind him. Leaving Zira to try arguing again as Leo walked over to Kale and shook his hand.

"Sorry to run out on you so quickly." He offered empathetically but the man just shook his head.

"Forget it, they're _my_ friends too." He announced truthfully. "Find them, make sure they're safe."

"We will." Leo told him with a little bow before getting onto the helicopter as well and was quickly followed by Donnie, only for the purple-lad turtle to look back and find Zira still on the deck.

"What's the matter, _scared_?" He jaded smugly causing her to glare at him for a moment before being interrupted by the copter starting to take off.

"Okay, okay I'm coming." She yelled and quickly reached out to take his hand so he could haul her into the thing as its landing gear left the ground.

…

( _Donnie's POV_ )

"Ow!" I complained when Zira suddenly punched me in the gut several minutes later.

"Why did I _listen_ to you?" She demanded as I rubbed my plastron sorely. "This thing is a flying _deathtrap_." She added dramatically, clinging to a safety bar in terror. "Do you even realize that it's literally _beating_ the air into submission?"

"I'm aware of that." I told her smugly. "Personally I think that only makes it _cooler_ – _ow!_ " I complained again as she punched me even harder in retaliation.

"I assure it's perfectly safe." Bishop informed her simply.

"Yeah, like I'm gonna believe _you_." She proclaimed angrily. "You think I don't know who you are. You _capture_ aliens like me and put them in _test tubes_."

"I don't deny that I've done some bad things, but I'm _not_ that man anymore." He countered quickly.

"I demanded proof." She countered simply causing Mikey to scoff in slight amusement.

"Very well." The human offered suddenly, getting our attention rather completely. "I'll provide you that chance; an opportunity to _prove_ my change, by _any_ means you see fit."

Zira just proceeded to grumble at that again but didn't say anything to refute it and personally I thought it wasn't a bad offer either. He knew that due to his past he would have to prove his innocence in many different ways, but this way the person in question could make the call.

But as usually Zira didn't appear to have much interest in the compromise as she just proceeded to hit me one last time for the hell of it. "Will you _stop that_?" I growled but she just turned to glare at something in the act of ignoring me.

…

7 hours later

It was dark by the time we reached our destination which made what we saw in the distance even _more_ unreal.

"What the hell is _that_?" Raph asked as he reached out to brace his hand above the window so he could get a better look at the oblong-shaped, glowing _dome_ that covered most of the island that had at one point been New York City.

"It's New Manhattan." Bishop explained simply causing us all to look at him in shock.

"That wasn't there when we were kids." Mikey proclaimed truthfully.

"They erected it a couple years ago." The man continued informatively. "That shield is designed to keep the trees at bay while still providing a livable space inside. I've been there once myself; it's actually very nice. They even have separate human and mutant _governments_."

"That _is_ cool." Mikey admitted impressively.

"How do we get _in_?" Leo asked trying to get a closer look as we neared the dome where I could clearly see buildings and even people inside, but as far as I could tell there was no _entrance_.

The entire outer wall was _congested_ with trees and vines to the point that it looked like the plants were actually starting to _climb_ up the rounded walls, though it was obvious that someone was taking measures to keep it under control, for the whole dome would have been completely covered in foliage by now if they hadn't.

That being said, gaining entrance to the thing still looked to be impossible.

"That's going to be a little _harder_ to accomplish." Bishop admitted. "Once you find the wall, follow it around, there's sea port on the east side and _possibly_ one on the south point. You'll be subject to a search and physical test to see that you aren't _sick_ , but they should let you in without a problem."

"And if there _is_ a problem?" Raph asked skeptically causing to man to look at him out of corner of his eye like he was considering whether to answer such a question.

"Give me a call." He finally declared.

"This wouldn't be a _ruse_ ta get us ta haul around yur little _tracker_ would it?" Raph countered with a growl but the man just raised his hands in surrender.

"I only offer my services, what you take from it is completely up to you." Bishop proclaimed and Raph was about to argue again when Leo shut him up.

"We'll keep that in mind." Our leader stated seriously as the helicopter swung around and we looked out to find we were now hovering over the Hudson River, for nothing but tree after tree after tree controlled any _ground_ that might have provided the craft with a landing place.

"I can't get any closer sir." The pilot declared from the cockpit and Bishop nodded before standing up to open the side door and looked down at the water as Raph got up to see for himself.

"Well?" Leo asked over the noise of the blades and Raph looked back at him.

"We can make it?" He announced loudly so he could be heard.

"Wait, hold on!" Zira demanded again as we all started to unbuckle our seat beats in order to stand up. "Make _what_?"

"You can _swim_ right?" I asked instead causing her to look at the water in horror before turning back to me sternly.

"That is _not_ funny!" She proclaimed dramatically, causing Raph to roll his eyes before jumping out of the copter with Mikey right on his tail.

" _Good_ 'cause I _wasn't_ joking." I countered as Leo looked back to give me a thumbs-up and I nodded to let him know I had it under control before he moved to jump out as well.

"I am _not_ doing that!" Zira continued to complain; now even Bishop was rolling his eyes at her, which was a really _weird_ sight.

"Fine, stay with _him_." I gave up pointing toward the man who looked none too pleased with that idea, but I didn't wait around to hear their refusals and quickly made to jump out of the craft to join my brothers in the river.

The drop was a lot farther than I had realized so when I hit the water my plastron _collapsed_ to protect my rib cage which caused me to lose some ground and I nearly ended up hitting the bottom. However it was when I looked up to see Zira had indeed jumped out after me that I realized we had a problem.

'This was why I had _asked her_ if she could _swim_.'

Ignoring the fact that our communication skills seemed to only be getting _worse_ , I quickly swam up to her; where I attempted to calm her panicking enough to get us to the surface before she drowned.

However for my trouble I only received a sharp punch to the jaw which nearly made me lose my stored air as she continued her attempt to get out of the water. I got hit a few more times while I proceeded to turn her around and quickly interrupted her next attack by pressing our mouths together in order to share the oxygen I had.

I ignored the little voice in the back on my head that argued with my more logical self on whether or not it was considered a _kiss_ or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as I continued to force air into her lungs which thankfully calmed her down in the process.

But when I finally couldn't give her anymore I pulled away and quickly started guiding her back to the surface until finally we could breathe real air again.

"Relax, you're okay." I told Zira soothingly as she continued to hold onto me in fear of sinking again and looked around to find my brothers swimming over to offer what little help they could. "Just get on my back." I ordered kindly and she did as she was told, finally allowing me to swim us both toward the shore line.

It took a little longer than I was use to; but eventually I made it to land again where Leo quickly helped Zira over to a large rock were she could sit and rest while I just knelt in the surf to catch my breath.

"Remind me to _kill_ you when this is over." She suddenly ordered in my direction and I smiled in response to the return of her usual banter.

"I'll make a note." I told her sarcastically before looking around as Mikey got our attention again.

"Hey guys – does this place look – _familiar_ to you?" He asked with a questionably raised eye-ridge at the landscape and I quietly looked around to see what he was talking about, which was when I saw it.

A _cliff-face_ just a little ways off from the beach may not have seemed like much of a need to act as we were, but for as long as we lived we would probably _never_ forget those rocks.

"Yeah it is." I told my little brother sourly as I realized that by some crazy twist of fate we had landed on the _same_ beach we had used to escape the White Coats when we were kids.

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(Nice comments please)


	8. Chapter 7

Do not Own TMNT

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Chapter 7:

( _Donnie's POV_ )

"That's funny, I remember it bein' – _bigger_." Raph proclaimed with a raised eye-ridge as he looked up at the cliff with a disgruntled air about him, as though trying to decide if he wanted to be interested or repulsed.

"I'm finding that I remember _a lot_ of things differently." I admitted looking out over the river to examine the domed city again, before turning back to my gantlet which now feathered a somewhat out of date map.

"Okay." I started again leading Leo to look over my shoulder as I pointed out a place along the bank. "We're here, Weehawken Waterfront Park."

"It's a _park_?" Mikey asked not really expecting an answer as he continued to study the area skeptically.

"Now if I'm right; the dome was built with the Empire State Building at its _center_." I continued simply, using my finger to create a circle on the map to get a better feel for the city's location. "Unfortunately that's going to put its east port on the _other side_."

"Goody." Zira declared dryly.

"What about the south port?" Leo asked as I quietly figured up the location of said thing. "Looks like the north end covers about half of Central Park with would put its south end near –" I said to myself while I mapped out the area and calculated for the dome's shape. "Wall Street." I finally finished.

"Okay." Leo announced, standing up straight again and walked back toward the bank. "We should be able to reach it by morning if we –"

"I am _NOT_ going in that water again." Zira suddenly interrupted causing everyone to blink at her as I face-palmed in disbelief.

"Only _you_ could find a woman who doesn't like _water_." Raph informed me jokingly and I glared at him before lifting my map once more to check on something.

"Okay." I tried again; pointing toward a glowing blue line crossing the Hudson in our general vicinity. "The Lincoln Tunnel is close and was well built in it's time, there might be at least _one_ lane that hasn't collapsed yet."

"Are ya serious?" Raph complained. "We're really goin' out a our way ta make _her_ happy?" This comment was quickly countered with an attempt on Zira's part to scratch his eyes out but he ducked it. " _Hey_!" He complained loudly; clearly ready to continue the skirmish.

"That's enough." Leo ordered sternly as he walked between the two before looking at Zira. "We'll check out the tunnel but if they're not safe, we _swim_." He proclaimed in a tone that suggested that there better not be any question, however Zira apparently didn't get that memo as she was obviously about to _question_ it.

But within the second it took her to open her mouth she seemed to suddenly think better of the idea. She was not so stubborn that she didn't realize her argument would have counted for less than _nothing_ , as the tunnel or swimming were the _only_ two options we had at the moment.

"I can deal with that." She finally compensated before walking off.

"Zira." I called causing her to round on me sourly.

"What?" She growled.

"It's _that_ way." I informed her pointing in the opposite direction and she promptly glared at me again, but I just smiled before leading the way down the beach.

…

"Oh yeah that looks _safe_." Raph muttered with a scoff as he and I checked out the first tunnel which was pilled with rusted cars and collapsed concrete.

"This one's flooded." Leo proclaimed of the second one.

"This one's a little _crowded_ , but I think its okay." Mikey called from the last tunnel and we all quickly made our way over to have a look. Where, true to his word, it was indeed cluttered with a traffic jam of cars that had run out of gas before getting out of the tunnel, and promptly abandoned some 70 plus years ago.

Mikey carefully jumped down to land on top of a truck and get a better look as he sniffed the air curiously. "It's not _stale_." He reported which proved that there must be at least some kind of circulation of the air, though whether that meant it was open on the other side remained to be seen.

Which had me remembering something

"Hang on." I called to everyone suddenly, making sure no one moved as I went about activating something else from my gantlet. "This is still in the demo stage, but it should be enough for this." I announced leaving everyone to look at me questionably before I pointed my fist at the sky in a Buzz Light-year impersonation causing a little disk to zip out and hover in front of us.

"What the heck it that?" Raph asked skeptically while I continued to mess with the controls.

I hadn't been lying, the little thing still required _a lot_ from me in order to function properly, something I had been hoping to rectify before taking it into the field. But after another minute of messing I seemed to have finally gotten through to the program.

"Evinrude." I said simply, which caused the little floating disk to quickly reform itself; as the nano-bots that made up its design took on a different shape and a second later we were looking at a small mechanical _dragonfly_.

"A _bug_?" Raph growled as me sourly and I smiled.

"You'll like _this_ bug." I told him, holding out my hand for the little thing to quietly land on my palm.

"I doubt it." He muttered and folded his arms defensively.

"Evinrude." I said again and the tiny robot quickly gave me its full attention in response to its given name. "Activate echo-location." I ordered and it promptly did so as I jumped down to stand near Mikey and held out my hand so the tiny machine could see where it needed to go.

"Create _map_." I finally commanded causing Evinrude to hover off my hand and slowly enter the tunnel; where it quietly began sending out a series of _pings_ which were sent directly to my gauntlet and gradually display what the tunnel looked like from within.

Watching it closely while the map continued to form, we had only to wait about a minute before the ping reached the end of the tunnel and displayed that it was in fact _open_ on the other end.

"That's impressive." Zira informed me from over my shoulder as Evinrude returned to my hand. "What else can he do?"

"I'm hoping once he's _finished_ he'll be able to do just about _anything_." I admitted; looking around to find my brothers were obviously very impressed as well, (except for Raph of course.) "Come on bro." I chided with a smile holding out the little mechanical insect in his direction. "You know that's cool."

"It is." He admitted through a growl as he eyed the thing critically. "But why does it have ta be a _bug_?"

I laughed at that in a way that said I wasn't making fun of him, just that I found the irony amusing. "Something tells me you wouldn't like Lord Dregg." Zira put in, causing us all to look at her.

"Who?" Leo asked but she waved him off.

"Pray you never find out." She answered before walking up to the tunnel, leaving my brothers and I to look at each other questionably.

"Are we _really_ doin' this?" Raph asked of Leo dryly, to which I found that I _agreed_. After all I would much rather be in the water than a long dark _hole_.

"Yes we are." Leo answered simply, though obviously not too happy about the idea himself, but that didn't stop him from moving to follow her.

…

"Well I hope yu're _happy_." Raph complained in Leo's direction after a few hours of us following Evinrude through the tunnel; as the little guy proceeded to produce a glow from his center that created a light just strong enough that we could see where we were going.

I had to admit that making our way around and over the endless line of cars was indeed getting _old_ , but his arguing wasn't going to make it go by any faster, and it appeared that our leader was in agreement with this as he just sighed and proceeded to ignore him with varying degrees of success until someone else spoke up.

"Did you mean what you said?" Zira suddenly asked and I looked over in an attempt to answer before realizing that she was actually talking to Leo. It would seem that she was getting more and more comfortable being around my brothers; I just hoped that was a good thing.

"When?" He asked kindly while he maneuvered around an old blue truck with large protruding mirrors.

"When you told Bishop that I was apart of your clan." She started simply. "And that you would _protect_ me?"

"Yes I did." He answered without question and I smiled a little at the response. "Donnie told us about what your father did, how he helped him come back to us." He continued seriously. "That means a lot to us and I intend to _repay_ him for it."

"So you're only keeping me happy because my father reunited your family?" She asked with a raised eye-brow.

"That and the fact that that _chain_ connects you to Donnie in ways we don't yet understand and I'm not willing to let you out of my sight until we figure out what it can _do_."

"That was mean." She announced truthfully. "But I like a man who's truthful." She admitted seriously and I scoffed.

'Who'd of guessed?' I thought to myself with a shake of my head.

"Don't get me wrong Zira." Leo continued meaningfully. "According to Donnie you saved his life not once but _three_ times, that in itself has more than earned you our respect and protection. However our _trust_ is not so easily obtained."

She nodded in understanding of that as she carefully walked off the end of a car to stroll up the hood of another. "That makes perfect sense." She admitted before we were interrupted by Mikey calling to us from a turn in the street up ahead.

"Leo, I see _light_." He proclaimed.

"Finally!" Raph answered loudly before rushing up to stand with him where the three of us arrived a minute later to find that there was indeed light at the end of the proverbial-tunnel.

"Is it _morning_?" I stated as I noticed the brightness of the glow and looked down at my gantlet to check the time. "How long have we been _awake_?" I added with a sudden yawn.

"We can sleep when we're dead." Raph announced waving away my comment as we reached the end of the tunnel.

"That's a cheery thought." Zira responded with a little laugh.

"I don't care, just so long we're out a that – _WHAT_?" Raph suddenly yelled as we walked out into the open, only to find that we were _still_ surrounded by _walls_.

"Joy!" I added, sourly taking in the tall barricades that bordered us in on both sides, though the place still looked more like a jungle than a street.

Tree roots stuck out from under nearly every square inch of asphalt as the ruins of collapsed structures sat around in piles giving the area a canyon-like feel. But it was still obvious that we were enclosed by walls that had yet to break down and the forest growing above only made it more twisted and _impassible_.

"Okay –" Leo sighed dryly. "Let's just _find_ an exit; there's gotta be one around here _somewhere_." He proclaimed while Raph continued to growl swear words and other such unpleasantries until we'd walked to the end of the road and _found_ what we were looking for.

"Well it's an _exit_." Mikey announced truthfully while we looked at what had once been another little tunnel but was now packed from ground to ceiling with tree roots to the point that we wouldn't be getting through that way either, unless we suddenly evolved into ant-people.

"I don't recall New York being quite this _exhausting_." Raph proclaimed as I brought up my map again.

"We were never above ground long enough to get a feel for it." I told him distractedly. "And unfortunately Evinrude it's ready for such a _wide_ area." I added as I began to cross-check my map again until I found what I needed.

"Okay there should be another –" I started to answer as I turned to point north, until my eye caught sight of a _name_ on my map and all plans went out the window. "Oh no!"

" _Noooo_!" Mikey howled dramatically. "Don'tsay _that_ , it's never a good thing when _you_ say that." He added seriously as everyone stopped walking to look back at me and wait for the bad news I was about to give them.

"What is it Donnie?" Leo asked, trying to see what I was looking at and I quietly pointed him in the direction of the name I had seen.

 _Hell's Kitchen_

Even in Japan we had learned of the area's reputation as the most _dangerous_ place on the American Continent, and in our broken world of today it was even _worse_. As the most corrupt, greedy and war hungry of individuals had come to call the place home, while also creating some of the nastiest gangs, drugs and violence history had ever known.

And we were right in the _center_ of it.

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 _Nice_ reviews are welcome

X)


	9. Chapter 8

Don't Own Ninja Turtles

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Chapter 8:

( _3_ _rd_ _:_ )

"Wonderful!" Raph argued dramatically before rounding on Zira. "Do ya see why we wanted ta _swim_ now?"

"Oh come on this place doesn't look _that_ bad." She countered quickly.

"That's because you don't _live_ on this _planet_." Donnie told her sternly before leading the way toward another tunnel which was still overgrown but not so much that they couldn't get through.

"Oh _hell_ _no_!" Raph stated quickly when they arrived on the other side and looked around to discover that the place was probably their worst nightmare come to life.

Trying to make their way under bridges, streets and subway tracks crisscrossing each other in a maze of potential _ambushes_ was not their idea of fun, and given how the path had been almost _cleared_ for them; this was _exactly_ what someone had in mind.

" _Not_ gonna happen!" Leo whispered before pushing everyone back into the safety of the shadows again. "Donnie there's _gotta be_ another way out of here."

"Yeah, we need to go _south_ anyway." Mikey put in truthfully and pointed in the opposite direction.

"I know." Donnie whispered back as he looked down at his map again and sighed. "It's been _years_ since someone made an accurate map of this area, everything's going to be completely different." He explained dryly before putting the thing away again so he'd have his hands free. "On top of that the _dome_ would have given the gangs out here free range, any available section that isn't protected by it is gonna be a _war-zone_." He added seriously.

"Maybe we can –" Mikey started to suggest but was interrupted when a _gun_ suddenly went off and a piece of concrete to their right exploded as a bullet hit it.

"Get down!" Leo ordered but nobody needed to be _told_ as they quickly backtracked to the other side of the tunnel while more shots rang out, but upon returning to their starting point they only found themselves blocked in by even _more_ gunfire.

"I wasn't expectin' a walk in the park or anythin', but this is _ridicules_." Raph complained over the noise as he turned around in an attempt to shield them with his shell while bullets ricocheted around the small area.

"Leo!" Mikey suddenly perked up again getting his leader's attention and quickly pointed him toward something on the ground.

"Go!" Leo commanded sternly when he saw it too and they all immediately bolted for the manhole cover that could barely be seen through the foliage. They had to chop out the roots and clear the debris first, but in a matter of a few seconds they had pulled the lid up and dropped down inside.

"How on earthdid you _see_ that?" Zira asked Mikey in amazement as Evinrude flew down and activated his internal flashlight again, causing them all to flinch from the sudden brightness.

"It's kinda my thing." The twerp proclaimed proudly before Donnie and Leo joined them in the sewer and they all look up again as the lid was replaced and Raph dropped down to land next to them; only to immediately try and get at something on his back.

"Damn it, that _hurts_." He swore as Donnie carefully removed a bullet from his shell.

"You'll be fine." The doctor of the family informed him while he rubbed his hand over the spot where his brother had been shot; taking notice of the other _six_ scars he had received as a child and were still visible to that day. Thankfully their living armor was a lot stronger than when they were kids and could easily withstand such an impact without crippling them or even leaving a mark.

But that didn't mean it didn't hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.

"It's an _armor piercing_ _round_." Donnie added through his examination of the bullet, which explained why it didn't just bounce off.

"Wonderful." Raph muttered as he rotated his shoulder a little to ease the discomfort.

"If your shells are that _tough_ why did you have such a problem with that laser blast?" Zira asked curiously of Donnie as he pocketed the bullet. Knowing their luck; someone would find the thing and use the DNA on it to create a Raph-clone, lord knows _one_ was bad enough.

"Because we've never _encountered_ laser fire before; my body hadn't evolved a _defense_." Donnie explained. "That and a heated, high-powered plasma beam, moving at ten-thousand and silly miles per hour isn't going to end well for _anyone_ on the receiving end."

"Good point." She agreed simply.

"Okay." Leo interrupted as he took out his flashlight and swung the beam in both directions to see what they were dealing with. "I like this better." He added when they didn't find a whole herd of sharp-toothed snarling mutants glaring at them from the shadows. "Any idea where we're going, Donnie?"

"Hang on." He requested and quickly gave the dragonfly another echo-location command, causing another map to be produced as the image rotated around in a holographic network of tunnels, sewer lines and pipes. "If I'm right, we should be pretty close to our old haunting grounds." He finally announced. "Though we're on the wrong level."

"What about the _colony_?" Leo asked as he looked at the map as well. "Do you think it's still there?"

"I don't know." Donnie admitted. "August said most everyone had _moved_ into New Manhattan. If anyone _is_ still down here they're probably _gangs_."

"Then let's avoid them and get to this 'Wall Street' before we get _shot_." Zira ordered sternly causing everyone to look at her again.

"Agreed." Leo added and Donnie quickly started leading the way in the direction they needed to go.

"Wait when did _she_ start callin' the shots?" Raph complained sourly.

"Because it was a good idea." She countered earning a glare. "Oh come on Red even _you_ can't argue with that."

"Ya'd be _surprised_ what I can ague about." He growled.

"Raph!" Leo commanded sternly causing the turtle to back up a step so he wasn't staring her down like Tom would Jerry.

"What is it with you and _names_ anyway?" Mikey added curiously trying to pacify the scene before someone ended up hurt.

"Why do you say that?" She stated simply.

"It's just – you seem to have a _nick_ -namefor everyone." He proclaimed truthfully, using air quotes around the word 'nick.'

"Well I admit that might have something to do with the way I was raised." She proclaimed. "Names are considered _sacred_ in my clan which made it kind of hard to keep everyone straight, so I eventually just gave them all pet-names." She explained with a little smile in his direction. "I guess some habits are hard to break."

Mikey nodded with an understanding look on his face as that made perfect sense to him, not surprisingly, as he was well known for doing the exact same thing and was clearly existed by the prospect of having someone he could bounce enemy names around with. However he didn't have time to bring this up with her before their group was forced to a stop.

"Oh look more _water_." Raph announced dryly as they came up to the tunnel they needed to take which headed down into the lower regions. However said exit couldn't be seen through the gross excuse of liquid.

But then the _smell_ hit.

"I don't think that's _water_." Zira complained; covering her face in an attempt to protect her nose and everyone else quickly did the same.

" _Please_ tell me there's another way Donnie." Leo begged in an attempt to talk without breathing.

"Yeah." He answered pointing toward a pipe in the wall up ahead. "That should take us around."

"Good – let's go." Zira ordered quickly and promptly led the way without even looking back to see if they were following her.

…

( _Donnie's POV_ )

We ended up trudging through river runoff for upwards of an hour before running across a small community of your average drunken gang of constantly swearing individuals who tend to don clothes of radioactive colors with lots of holes.

"You can _really_ defend humans after seeing _this_?" Zira whispered in my ear causing me to glare at nothing particular before looking at her.

"This is _really_ not the time for that." I growled at her sourly and she shrugged as if it was my idea all along, leaving me to sigh before turning back to the gang of yahoos in an attempt to determine whether they were wasted enough to not notice us if we passed.

In the end Mikey proved that he was earning his oats and quickly pointed out a bundle of coats and such that we could use to walk among the hoodlums unnoticed.

"Here." I stated quietly, handing over one that would fit Zira.

"Keep it." She proclaimed waving it away like a bug.

"Zira some of these people don't like mutants, you need to –" I started to complain until Leo cut me off.

"Donnie – I think she's _covered_." He stated in shock and I noticed that all of my brothers seemed to suddenly be looking at her rather strangely.

"What?" I had to ask looking back in her direction trying to figure out what was so strange.

"You can't _see_ it?" Mikey asked quizatively.

"Nope." Zira answered instead as she reached into her pocket for something. "It doesn't _work_ on him, something about mental defensives and whatnot." She added informatively before handing me a little circle of what looked to be more of that golden crystal that seemed so prominent in her clan.

I continued to look at her strangely for a moment before holding the thing up to my eye and nearly jumped out of my shell upon learning why everyone was suddenly seeing her in a new light – _literally_. As apparently she was using her ability to manipulate their minds and make them see her as a _human_.

Her face was slightly shaper than your normal homo-sapien and she retained the tribal-like marking of her species but other than that she now featured all of the common characteristics of a human woman.

Well I guess there wasn't a lot of point to the coat after all, heck just the designs on her body made her blend in with the tattoo ridden idiots better than anything else we could do.

"Never mind." I stated simply before handing the little monocle back to her and walked after Leo as we started making our way through the camp. However it didn't take long before I noticed the goons looking at her anyway.

"Are you sure it's working?" I asked under my breath which was when one of them let out a loud cat call in her direction along with a whistle and she grinned.

"Yeah, I think it is." She answered sugarly.

"You couldn't have picked something less _conspicuous_?" I proclaimed sourly and she was about to counter with one of her usual witty comebacks when –

"Hey baby!" An incredibly intoxicated individual announced as he walked up to place his arm around her shoulders. "Ya must be _new_ here, why don' ya let _me_ take ya for a spin?"

I honestly don't know what it was that set me off. Maybe it was his words or maybe it was the way he looked at her like she was something he could _eat_. But all I know is one second the guy was on his feet and the next he was laid out on the ground.

" _Daaaamn_ Donnie." Raph praised with a laugh, clearly impressed as I steered Zira away from the scene so we could start moving again.

"I had no idea you were so _protective_." She quailed with a grin but I ignored her while I continued to keep her close so none of the other weirdoes would get a similar idea.

* * *

Well he _has_ been tasked with protecting her.

X)


	10. Chapter 9

Hope everyone's been enjoying my other stories

I think I might have been a little inspired... lol

;)

* * *

Chapter 9:

( _Donnie's POV_ )

"This should be it." I announced, looking at a sign near a ladder that lead to the surface before making my way up and attempted to open the cover, however the damn thing refused to budge leaving me to sigh dejectedly. I then turned back to find Raph coming up as well, so swiftly moved to the side letting him take a crack at the stubborn piece of metal.

"Damn!" He swore when it continued to remain stuck. "It must be blocked." He added before adjusting his stance and took a few deep breathes to channel his strength and tried again. This time there was the distinct sound of shifting stone and twisting metal and I winced as the manhole cover actually started to _bend_ under his strength.

Of course this was when _water_ started pouring in and I quickly moved over to get behind him so he wouldn't fall if he lost his footing while he continued to work on the blockage until finally the debris above had been shifted enough that he was able to just throw off the lid and man-handle his way up to the surface as the water continued to flow over the edges.

"We're good." He called back and I quickly followed him to find that we had come up exactly where I had planed. Though it didn't look too much like the Wall Street from old newspaper pictures, it was still somewhat recognizable through the foliage, rusted old cars and flooded streets.

"Wow!" Mikey exclaimed when he arrived at the top of the hole and hopped out before turning around to grab Zira's hand and helped her up as well.

"Thanks Sunshine." She declared sugarly and he blushed.

"Ya know it's actually kinda – _peaceful_." Raph stated when Leo joined us as well and I found that I couldn't help but agree with him.

The Greek-style architecture of the New York Stock Exchange seemed to ironically accent the trees that were now so tall that their leaves filtered the light, giving the stream-like streets a somewhat _enchanted_ feel.

"That doesn't mean it _is_?" Leo stated as Mikey used his eagle eyes to search the area for any trouble.

"Actually – I think they're right." He announced in shock.

"Why do ya say that?" Zira requested disbelievingly but my little brother just causally pointing her to a spot down the way where there were actually a couple of _deer_ grazing naturally.

The timid creatures saw us as well, but from one animal to another we showed them we were no threat and kindly respected their dinner as they continued on their way without fear, leaving us to do the same.

"So where's this dome supposed ta – never mind." Raph started to ask as we rounded a corner up ahead, only to look up and discover we were right outside the wall of orange energy-like dome.

"That's more like it." Leo announced before leading the way toward the city's borders as we carefully picked our way across the streets and around husks of cars that were hardly even recognizable anymore. However when we finally reached the wall and looked around we realized there was no _entrance_.

"How do you _see_ anything in this city?" Zira complained sourly as she looked around the corner of a skyscraper only for her line of sight to be blocked by trees and more buildings.

"We go _up_." Leo answered simply and pointed toward a random office building which we quietly started moving toward.

"Ya any good at climbin'?" Raph asked in annoyance as he reached out to grab a window sill and effortlessly hauled himself up to the one above it, leaving her to give him a dry glare which slowly turned to a look of uncertainty as her eyes traveled up the 50 plus stories to the top of the building.

"This is relatively _small_ for New York." I told her truthfully causing her to turn to me in shock like she had forgotten I was there. "There were over 5,000 completed high-rises in it's time and nearly 98 of them stood taller than 600 feet."

"That is _not_ making me feel better." She growled before beginning her climb, leaving me to follow after her carefully. Though she was clearly a seasoned climber by the way she naturally used her claws to dig in, it was obvious by the way she kept looking up that she wasn't use to climbing _buildings._

"Come on." I told her gently once we had reached a floor where she could hop through the window to sit on the branch of a tree. "I'll take you the rest of the way." I offered, pointing toward my back but she seemed to be relatively torn about that, obviously fussing over her pride by this point.

"Zira come on." I complained as I looked up to find my brothers were nearly halfway up and had now turned back to see what was taking so long. "It'll take us all day at this rate, just let me _help you_."

"Fine." She relented and maneuvered over to put her arms around my neck.

"Ow!" I complained quietly. "Do you _sharpen_ your claws?"

"Yes I do." She announced smugly and I roiled my eyes before beginning to climb again. "You're going too fast." She argued a moment later and I clearly felt her grip tighten a little.

"I'm _not_ going too fast." I countered in annoyance.

"You're gonna lose you're grip."

"I'm _not_ gonna lose my grip."

"You're –"

"Zira – I _know_ what I'm doing." I told her sternly and she finally shut up to let me concentrate on scaling the foliage ridden wall until I reached my brothers again, who wisely decided not to comment as we all started making our way to the top of the high-rise once more.

"Wow!" Mikey exclaimed when we finally reached the top and I allowed Zira to climb off my back into the branches of the large tree. "Look at that _view_." He added with a smile as he leaned out over the edge of the building to look down.

I had to admit he had a point, up here was just as overgrown as down on the ground floor, as the buildings all seemed to be connected through an intricate network of rooftop jungles. Yet we could still look down and see the top of the forest below as well.

It was an interesting experience to say the least for we certainly didn't have anything like it in Japan. But then again we had never been to any of the taller cities either, at least not any that weren't _flooded_.

Strong overlaying branches and a system of roots made it easier to hop between the buildings, though we still had to take a peek below the leaves every once in the while so we didn't miss the entry port. But when it was all said and done it was certainly easier than having to navigate on the ground.

"There!" Mikey called after nearly an hour and we turned to find him hanging from a tree branch over the ravine to point at something.

"Get away from there!" Zira suddenly ordered making us all jump and look at her in shock, which quickly made her recollect herself and look at anything but Mikey as my youngest brother carefully returned to solid ground, obviously at a complete loss about what he had done wrong.

"There's something on the side of the dome." He finally explained to Leo who had nodded that he could continue. "It could be the port."

"Good job." Leo congratulated and patted the turtle on the shoulder before walking over to take a look for himself. "Let's go check it out." He added.

"But what if it's not the port?" Zira countered and we all looked at her again.

"For cryin' out loud lady, yur _messin'_ with my _vibe_ here." Raph companied sourly. " _I'm_ the one that questions Leo's orders."

"You're not helping." Leo informed him sourly but my red-clad brother just smiled at him smugly causing Leo to sigh and turn back to her. "Zira, I don't give orders I wouldn't abide by myself and I don't expect you to follow me blindly. But I _can't_ have you continually arguing with me, it throws off our chain of command."

She seemed to consider that for a moment but didn't answer as she just folded her arms and looked away from him in annoyance, so he tried again.

"But –" He sighed. "If it makes you feel any better – _Donnie_ is actually second in command here." He revealed simply, causing her to look at me in shock. "He has the authority to question _anything_ I say and if he ever thought that my orders were dangerous or unnecessary; his word alone would _stop_ anyone else from following me."

"We don't follow Leo because he's our big brother Zira." Mikey put in suddenly and she looked at him as he went on. "We follow him because he's a _good_ leader."

"Okay!" She finally relented around a sigh and turned back to the blue-clad turtle. "I'm _– sorry_." She added painfully, causing him to raise an eye-ridge at her.

"Careful, I'd hate for you to _strain_ yourself." He stated sarcastically causing her to glare at him.

" _Take_ the complement?" She ordered with a growl and he smiled.

"You're right – thank you." He added quickly while she continued to stare him down.

"But just out of curiosity –" She added nicely. "How are we going to get _down_?"

I had nearly turned to answer her when I happened to notice the right evil smile dominating the expression on Raph's face before he suddenly picked her up bridal-style and jumped off the roof with her screaming at the top of her lungs.

Looking over the edge I found myself laughing as they landed on the tops of the trees below and she quickly jumped away from him to out right attack the jerk for the act, but he was obviously still too happy with himself to feel it.

I looked back at Leo as he sighed loudly before speaking up again. "I get the feeling this is going to be a _long_ mission."

…

( _3_ _rd_ _:_ )

"Well would ya look at that?" Raph quailed happily before reaching out to trap Mikey's head under his arm to give him a noogie. "Yu've definitely got the gift little brother." He congratulated as we peaked through the leaves to see a large archway in the side of the dome.

"Come on." Leo ordered and quietly jumped from the trees to land like a cat on the ground before leading the way over to the entrance. However when they got there they still found themselves blocked off with the same energy-like field that made up the rest of the wall, though the doorway was obviously made with a smaller amount; as it was a lot _lighter_ in color.

"So – what da we do now? Knock?" Raph asked, walking forward to look through the energy, trying to see if anyone was there.

"Maybe there's a doorbell or a – AHH!" Mikey started to suggest before being interrupted by the energy field suddenly dropping, which caused him to leap away from it in shock.

A moment later they all took notice of the two men with weapons meandering toward them from a small watch house and quietly stood about to wait for their arrival, trying to appear as unthreatening as possible.

"What's you're business here?" One of them asked and they all turned to Leo who took a single step toward them.

"We're trying to find a friend of ours, August O'Neil." He stated respectfully causing one of them to pull out a register form, while the other kept his gun on the turtles protectively.

"Donatello?" The one with the book asked after a minute.

"Yes, that's me?" Donnie answered and the man moved over to cross-reference him with the description he had on record.

"When's the last time he _saw_ you?" The man asked skeptically and they winced.

"When we were _five_." Donnie proclaimed with a pained smile and the men laughed a little at that.

"Alright, we'll have to have him called up." The man explained kindly as he clipped the book onto his belt again and held out his hand. "Please hand over your weapons, they'll be returned after you've completed a few tests." He added and they reluctantly did as he said before the other man pointed them toward a doorway and stayed back to reinstate the energy shield once they had passed the threshold.

The next several minutes were uncomfortable; but they managed not to destroy anything or hit anyone as a few nurses took a blood test, checked their vitals and so on to make sure they weren't carrying anything that could wipe out their fragile little city.

"Can I ask what happens to the samples after you're done?" Leo asked nervously while the nurse took his blood, causing him to fight like crazy not to twitch as the needle entered his skin.

"If you'd like they can be destroyed." The woman offered, clearly this wasn't her first time being asked such a question.

"I would appreciate that thank you." He said with a polite bow in her direction before getting up so Raph could take his place.

After that they ended up just kind of shuffling around the waiting area as they burnt off some of the energy they had been storing since their arrival. That is until the doors suddenly slammed shut and the room started flashing with red and blue lights as a voice over the intercoms stated that something called a code 4 was breached.

"What's happening?" Zira asked when a bunch of armed guards gathered on the other side of the doors to point their guns at them through the energy field.

"Get on the ground!" One up front ordered.

"Do as he says." Leo commanded quietly when his brothers prepared to fight, leaving them to all reluctantly raise their hands and kneel on the floor, which allowed the men to drop the shield and rush in to apprehend them.

In a matter of seconds the group had their hands cuffed behind their backs and were forced to lie completely on the floor while people rushed around everywhere in a frenzy of motion.

"Aren't they supposed to read us our rights?" Mikey asked nervously.

"They don't do that anymore Mike." Donnie answered quietly while Leo attempted to find out what was going on.

"Sir!" He ordered sternly successfully getting the leader's attention again. "Will you _please_ tell us what's happening?"

The man scoffed like he didn't believe for a second that the turtle didn't already know, but answered anyway. "We found the nano-bots in your blood." He stated simply.

"No, you don't understand –" Leo countered, trying to get up again until someone pointed a gun at his head and he quickly went back to lying on the floor. "They _don't_ control us." He added seriously.

"That's a shame." The guard answered causing them to look at him questionably. "If they did we could have _helped_ you. But we certainly aren't going to aid one of _Shredder's spies._ "

* * *

I didn't think of this when I deleted the Authors note, but I have to wonder if it messed up the comment section and made it hard for people to leave reviews. If this is the case I'm sorry. ^-^;


	11. Chapter 10

I don't own TMNT

* * *

Chapter 10:

( _3_ _rd_ _:_ )

"No, wait a minute." Leo tried again to reason with the man only for one of the guards to put a foot on his back in order to keep him from getting up again.

"Leo!" Raph growled through his teeth, clearly getting ready to attack.

"No Raph, don't hurt them." Leo ordered sternly before turning back to look at the guard. "You don't understand." He told the guy respectfully; but he just glared at the turtle.

"Don't hurt _us_?" The man repeated and Leo winced wishing he hadn't said that now. "You're in no position to _threaten_ us."

"It wasn't a threat." Leo declared truthfully. "Please just let me explain. We do _not_ work for Shredder or anyone else. We're _free_."

"Then _why_ are his gangs so active?" The man grumbled.

"Gangs?" Leo repeated before realizing that he was talking about the Purple Dragons out in Hell's Kitchen. "They work for _Shredder_?" He asked in shock, leaving the man to scoff at them before looking toward his men and nodded which caused them to start hauling the turtles to their feet so they could lead them down the hall, despite Leo's attempt to start the conversation again.

"What about our phone call?" Donnie suddenly demanded causing everything to come to a stop. "You cannot legally detain us without first offering us one phone call to provide proof of our innocence."

"That doesn't apply in a case like this." The main guard countered.

"Not true." Donnie carried on calmly. "There is _no_ law stating _specifically_ that a person under the possible control of another is forfeit from the simple right to remain innocent until _proven_ guilty."

The man just growled like he didn't care either way before giving in and turned back to Leo. "Give this one a phone, take the others to a cell." He ordered and his men promptly followed out the commands, leaving Leo to watch as his family was hauled away.

…

( _Donnie's POV_ )

"This is _stupid_." Raph complained loudly and I sighed. "I can break us out a here in a _second_." He added with a growl.

"Yeah that'd certainly prove our innocence." I stated sarcastically.

"And what are we supposed ta do if the system _back_ - _fires_ on us?" He countered grouchily.

"Well – then you can break us out in a _second_." I declared with a smile causing him to glare at me.

"Smart ass!" He insulted and I laughed just before the door was opened again and Leo was walked in.

"Well that was –" He started after the door closed behind him again and he rubbed his wrists, clearly wanting to talk about something else. "I don't know what that was." He finally admitted sourly, before turning to take a seat next to me.

"This is _ridicules_ Leo." Raph repeated demandingly and I quickly leaned back to knock my head against the wall tiredly.

"Here we go again." I muttered under my breath.

"We shouldn't have ta go crawlin' ta _Bishop_. Now we're gonna _owe_ him." Raph continued loudly.

"The way I see he owed _us_ for the London thing, now we're even." Leo countered tiredly.

"I _still_ don' like it." Raph yelled and Leo sighed loudly as he rubbed his temple in annoyance.

"If my opinion is worth anything, I agree with Red." Zira suddenly perked up and everyone stared at her in shock, even Raph.

"Well _now_ we're domed." Mikey quailed dramatically leaving me to lean back and close my eyes, in an attempt to pretend that I was on a beach somewhere.

"I'm just saying." Zira continued. "Bishop's cruelty toward races different than his own is known even on _my_ world." She explained sourly as she took a seat to cross her arms and legs in a huff.

"So is _he_ the reason you don't like humans?" I asked curiously.

"He's _part_ of the reason." She admitted. "But what makes you think he's _human_?" She added causing us all to look at her questionably.

"Isn't he?" Leo asked and she shrugged.

"I don't know that much about humans but I do know that their average lifespan is about 100 years." She answered simply. "Bishop – or at least the man we _know_ as Bishop has been floating around your world since the year 1776."

" _What_?" My brothers and I all asked at the same time but she just waved her hand in a dismissing manner.

"That's all I know." She muttered sourly. "I don't know how it happened, if he's a mutant or an alien or a genetic experiment, I just know that he's caused _a lot_ of trouble for a _very_ long time."

We just kind of stared at her for a minute as we absorbed that information until Raph turned back to Leo. "Ya _still_ want ta trust him?" He demanded sternly causing our oldest brother to promptly glare at him.

"Being _different_ is not a crime Raph." He stated seriously. "That being said I _don't_ trust him – but I _do_ trust Kale." He added calmly as he turned to look at the floor thoughtfully. "He says he's _changed_ , so we'll see if that's true."

…

I noticed as time passed that my brothers became twitchier and twitchier about being confined to such a small space which made me wonder if I was _use_ to it after having visited so many cells recently, which only made me that much more depressed as it was really not something I wanted to get _accustomed_ to.

So to say that I was noticeably relieved when the door finally opened again would have been an understatement, but that didn't even scratch the surface of how happy _August_ looked when he rushed in to see us.

"Hey Unc." Mikey greeted as the man came to a halt in his footsteps to stare at us in shock.

"Oh my –" He proclaimed in wonder as he walked up to throw an arm around Raph's shoulders with a smile. "When the hell did you guys get so _tall_?" He demanded lovingly.

"It's a long complicated process of growing pains and muscular developmental – _stuff_." Mikey announced knowledgably before reverting to his usual answer for when he didn't understand something. "Ask Donnie."

August just laughed as he turned to find me and raised an eyebrow in question.

"Do I _really_ need to explain it?" I asked painfully, causing him to burst into joy as he rampaged over to trap me in a head lock.

"He _speaks_." The man quailed loudly.

"Oh honestly." I complained sourly as he let me go again. "This is the second time in a _week_ – is it _really_ that surprising?" I demanded dryly.

"Yes, yes it is." He stated and I glared at him.

"You didn't _speak_?" Zira suddenly asked me and I face-palmed as August turned to greet her as well.

"Well now – who is _this_ lovely creature?" He cooed with a smile and I groaned as Zira grinned at him for the compliment.

"I like him." She whispered in my ear.

" _Shocking_!" I answered sarcastically before Leo came to my rescue.

"August, what's happened?" He asked seriously causing the man to get back to the real subject that had been lost in transition.

"I've been out there trying to get them to let you out for about an hour now. Then this guy in a coat came strolling up, said a few words and now you're free to go." He proclaimed with a confused look. "Where did you meet a guy like _that_ anyway?"

"Oh _don't_ make us go into all the details, it's just _too painful_." Mikey complained dramatically looking at the ceiling in distress and causing August to raise an eyebrow at him before turning back to Leo.

"You probably _don't_ want to know." He answered more clearly and the man nodded before turning around.

"Well then let's get you guys out of here before they change their minds." He stated and quickly led the way back out into the hall which was suspiciously quite for having just been on high-alert.

"I guess I should have anticipated that." Bishop's voice suddenly declared which had us all turning around wildly to find him standing in the middle of the hallway which had been empty just a second ago.

"Damn –" Mikey exclaimed in shock. "And I thought _we_ were sneaky."

"What's the big idea?" Raph demanded of the man loudly. "Why'd ya send us in here if ya _knew_ that was gonna happen?"

"I wasn't aware that they had the technology to locate nano-bots." Bishop proclaimed calmly as he adjusted his sunglasses. "But I must admit it's good to know."

"Ya dirty son-of-a –" Raph challenged before charging him.

"Raph wait! It's a –" I called but he didn't hear me as he attacked; only to go straight _through_ the guy and hit the ground on the other side. "– Hologram." I finished with a sigh as Mikey walked up to run his hand through the image curiously.

"Cool." He proclaimed with a grin before turning back to me like a kid in a candy store. "I want one." He declared.

"If you mow the lawn and take out the trash." I told him sarcastically as Leo walked around to help Raph back to his feet, who was now swearing up a storm and glaring at the hologram in such a manner that should have caused the man to spontaneously combust.

"I've taken the liberty of having all of the information they obtained from you destroyed." Bishop continued as I reached down to pick up the little device that was scurrying about on the floor to upload his image. "You can check again if you like." He added as his picture became smaller to compensate for the height difference.

"However while you're in there, I was hoping that you could do me a favor." He continued calmly while I used the time to study the little gadget curiously.

It was very well made; I had to admit I was impressed.

"Not a chance!" Raph answered immediately trying to take the machine so he could smash it, but I quickly held it protectively out of his reach.

"No!" I told him as if I was scolding a child, leaving him to fold his arms in a huff to glare at the wall again.

"What is it Bishop?" Leo asked as I brought the man's image back down so we could speak with him again.

"There is a _woman_ I would like you to find." He answered simply.

"Old girlfriend?" Zira countered with a smirk. "Can't imagine why she left you." She added sarcastically.

"Hardly!" He answered sourly before going on. "She was once Shredder's secretary."

" _Secretary_?" Mikey repeated disbelievingly. "Shredder had a _secretary_?"

"' _Had_ ' being the operative word." Bishop continued. "To this day she is the only one to get so close to Shredder and walk away clean."

"But we still have to find April and Casey." Mikey complained truthfully.

"And I would never ask you to forgo that task." Bishop proclaimed calmly. "I have already been working to locate them on my end as well, and any information I find will be uploaded to this device. I'm sure Donatello has already found it."

I looked up from my study of the contraption when I heard my name and nodded toward Leo that I was indeed discovering a lot of helpful information that would aid us in our search.

"And I believe that finding this woman will in fact help you in locating your friends." Bishop finished simply.

"And _how_ is that?" Raph demanded sourly but it was me that answered this time.

"Because Raph –" I started nervously as I looked up from the data in the device to make eye contact with him. " _Shredder's_ the one that took them."

The End

* * *

Another one over

Look for Part 7

"The Loads We Bear"

Look on my profile page for information

…

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everybody

Drive safe; or I will sic my ninjas on you. ;)

lol

XD


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